Seven Days
by Rheessa
Summary: Inspired by Rihito Takarai's manga 7 DAYS. High-school AU. Marco is known for dating people for a week, starting on Monday only to dump them on Sunday. What happens when a fast and food-loving kouhai runs him over first thing on Monday at school? Marco x Ace
1. Monday (Part 1)

**New A/N:**

**Since this story won't be updated in a while, I'm lowering the rating back to T. There is some borderline material in chapter 3, but that's about it, so consider this a warning. **

**Cheers,**

**~Rhe. (2014-09-03)**

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**Hi guys!**

**I think I've been dormant long enough, so here's the story I decided to come back with. Probably because it's the only one I'm somewhat sure of finishing.**

**By the way, its a shounen-ai fanfic, just in case.**

**Disclaimer: all the characters are owned by Eichiro Oda, I'm just using them for my own entertainment. And the plot belongs to Rihito Takarai, whose cutest manga 7 DAYS inspired the whole thing.**

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Ace was bored. They had a self-study period, but he just couldn't concentrate on the math in front of him. Especially on a day as nice as this one. He stared out the window, chewing on his pencil absent-mindedly. The sun was shining and there was a light breeze, judging by the movement of leaves on the trees in the school yard. It was end of September, so it was still warm outside, but the leaves were already touched by the colours of autumn, gold mixing with green.

Ace looked down and noticed a couple of girls outside, looking up at him, as he was on the second floor. He waved at them, giving one of his trade-mark smiles. The girls giggled and waved back at him, disappearing, as they went into the building. Ace sighed and wished he was hit by one of his sleep attacks. At least, that would be a reason legitimate enough to skip class. He yawned, in hope that he'll fall asleep because of that. Yeah, he was that naïve. Suddenly, somebody hit him on the back of his head.

"Ouch! That hurt, you bastard!" Ace turned around, ready to fight, as he saw his friend Nami. She was in the same class as him, a fiery red-head, who was extremely popular with boys. There even was a theory about her being a model, but Ace was sure that they were just misguided by her long red hair and her voluptuous bosom. After all, he knew better, even if modelling was easy money, Nami didn't have time for that, if she wanted to enter the prestige Red Line University. "What was that for, Nami?"

"Ace, you idiot… You should stop smiling like that."

"Why? What's wrong with my smile?" Ace fished his mobile out of his pocket and stared at the black screen, He flashed a smile at himself and looked at it sceptically.

"Haa…" Nami sighed. "Are you pretending to be the idiot we both know you aren't?"

"What?" Ace asked, completely confused.

"I can't believe how oblivious you are… You really have no clue?"

"About what?"

"That's why you can't keep a girlfriend. Because of your oblivious attitude and your 'killer smile'."

"Whaddya mean by that?" Ace frowned.

"Vivi said you two broke up."

"Yeah, why?"

"That's my question, what did she say to you?"

"That I was a nice person, but I'm nice to everyone. I don't see how that's a problem, though…"

"Ace, you idiot…" Nami sighed. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Whaddya mean by that?" Ace repeated, confused.

"Can you at least act a little sad?"

"Why should I do that?"

"You are hopeless." Nami shook her head. "You need help with that?" she pointed towards Ace's math book.

"Nah, it's not difficult, it's just boring. Thanks anyway." Ace flashed one of his smiles.

"Didn't I tell you to stop smiling?" Nami hit Ace on the head again.

"I can't help it, I'll smile if I feel like smiling!"

"Anyways, do you have club activities after school?" Nami asked, moving Ace's math book and planting her bottom on his desk, earning Ace quite a few jealous glances from his male classmates. Ace leaned back in his chair, so he would be able to see Nami's face. Sure, her figure was nice, but Ace found her personality more interesting than her curves.

"Yeah, why? Going on a date with Luffy and want my permission?"

"Why would I want your permission?" Nami asked, blushing a little. Luffy was Ace's younger brother, who was in a grade below him and somehow convinced Nami to be his girlfriend. To say that the fact that a goofy kid, who always wore his old straw hat, got Nami as his girlfriend left three quarters of male population of their school in tears was an understatement. Nami's personal fan-club was in mourning for a month, to say the least. "I was just wondering. What were you taking again, judo?"

"Yeah," Ace nodded.

"Ace, you wanna get some food?" asked Law, one of Ace's classmates, as well as one of Ace's closer friends.

"Sure," Ace was always hungry and everybody knew that.

"Good, Usopp is supposed to be here soon, you can go to the gate. Here's our money," Law gave Ace some bills. "Don't forget your own money."

"Did you order one for me?" Ace looked up at Law with puppy eyes.

"More like two, get going and don't forget your wallet," Law rolled his eyes at Ace's excited face.

Ace jumped up and checked his pockets. When he didn't find his wallet there, he snatched his bag and rummaged through it until he found his wallet. Leaving a mess behind him, he ran to the gate, skipping several steps at once on the stairs. If there was anything in the world that could get Ace's undivided attention, it would be food. Ace was also blessed with a gift of eating as much as he wanted and not gaining weight, which made Nami mad for obvious reasons. The same went for Ace's brother Luffy, who was even worse than Ace – it was like Luffy was made of rubber, judging by the amount of food he could eat in one meal.

Ace almost rolled down the last flight of stairs and tumbled out to the school yard. He smiled, apologetically, at the couple of girls, who he almost squashed into the wall when he almost fell down the stairs and sped away to the school gate. Ace's classmates had already learned one very important rule – 'don't stand between Ace and the food', but, apparently, not everyone at school knew that yet. That could explain why he collided with some guy fifty metres from the gate.

The force of the collision threw them to the ground, but Ace quickly rolled over, getting back to his feet. He didn't even look at the unfortunate guy, as he said 'sorry', because he spotted the pizza delivery man by the gate. Ace had to run into the wall to not to collide with the delivery man as well.

"Hi, Usopp!" Ace breathed out, smiling widely. Usopp was one of Luffy's friends, who happened to work part-time at a pizzeria. He had a lot of black curly hair and one very long nose and, what's more important, let Ace eat pizza and pay for it later.

"That looked painful, is that poor guy okay?" Usopp asked, as he looked behind Ace.

"More importantly, give me food," Ace was hopping in place in excitement.

"Fine," Usopp shoved around ten pizza cartons in Ace's hands.

"Money's in my back pocket," Ace turned his back to Usopp, trusting him to get the money. He felt Usopp check his pockets, all four of them for some reason, both back and front.

"There's no money," Usopp frowned.

"No way! Law gave me money, plus I had my wallet with me!" Ace exclaimed, clutching pizza cartons.

"I believe this is yours?" said somebody over Ace's left shoulder, placing his wallet and money from his classmates on the cartons.

"Wow, thanks, man!" Ace smiled widely at his saviour, his attention turning back to Usopp in an instant. "There, didn't I say I had money with me?"

Usopp looked at the guy behind Ace with pity.

"That looked really painful, are you alright?"

"Could have been worse," the guy chuckled. "Do you need a hand with those?"

Ace clutched the cartons even harder, not willing to let them go. He had enough experience to not to trust strangers with his food. Meanwhile, Usopp took the money needed and put Ace's wallet in Ace's back pocket.

"See you around, Ace," Usopp waved his hand, as he went back to his bicycle.

"Yeah, see ya!" Ace nodded and turned around, only to walk into the guy standing behind him.

"Are you sure you don't need help with those?" the guy asked again.

Ace shot an annoyed glare at him and stared. Oh, no he didn't! Ace's face fell a little, when he saw, who that was – steaming hot blond with a bored expression and piercing blue eyes… He was dead, for sure.

"Marco-sempai, I'm so sorry!" Ace made an attempt to bow, but it was either that or pizza, so Ace made the obvious choice – the food.

Marco was the captain of their judo team and was on top of the 'Most Wanted' list. It was a list, which included most popular people at school, boys and girls alike. It was updated every month and Ace was surprised to find himself there too, in top ten, which baffled him. It's needless to say, who was number one – Phoenix Marco.

Marco was an odd one, in Ace's opinion. He would date the person, who'd ask him first on Monday, only to dump them on Sunday. Given, that today was a Monday, Ace was pretty sure that Marco already had a girlfriend or a boyfriend for the week, Marco didn't hide that he swung both ways.

"Please don't tell me it was you I ran over, on my way here…" Ace stared at Marco, scared stiff – Marco could easily turn him into a pretzel.

"It's fine, it was my own fault for spacing out like that," Marco gave Ace a little smile and Ace could exhale. "But you sure are fast, why aren't you on the track and field team?"

"Because nobody could promise me they would wait with food on the finish line," Ace smiled widely.

"Right, food," Marco chuckled, as he turned to go to school, followed by Ace, who felt as if a thunderstorm passed him by.

"Who are you dating this week?" Ace asked, just to disturb the awkward silence between them.

"Nobody yet, I was at the dentist's all morning," Marco shrugged casually. "I have to say, dentists are sadists, at least mine is."

"Is that so?" Ace chuckled, grateful to the fact that he didn't have to go to the dentist anytime soon. Obeying his sudden impulse, Ace asked: "Would you go out with me, sempai?"

"I can't see why not," Marco smiled at Ace. "I'll see you at the dojo."

Marco waved his hand as he went in another direction. Ace stood there, completely baffled. Did he just ask Marco-sempai out? Why did he do that? They were both men and, even if it wasn't a problem for sempai, Ace sure as hell didn't swing that way, or did he? If he didn't, then why did he ask sempai out? Everything was so confusing, he needed to eat.

Ace got back to the classroom and was instantly swarmed by his classmates, who waited for their pizzas impatiently. Ace got two pepperoni pizzas, he really didn't care which one he would get. He went to his desk and pushed Nami off of it, as she was still sitting there. She didn't mind that and took the seat in front of Ace.

"Who was that poor guy, who was run over by you?" she asked, not even looking at pizza – it had way too many calories.

"Ah, that was Marco-sempai," Ace said with his mouth full.

"Hahaha!" Nami laughed. "Really?"

"Mff…" Ace nodded.

"That must have hurt…" Nami shook her head. "Still, it's his own fault, he should have known better."

"Mff…" Ace shrugged, his thoughts going back to the fact that he was the one Marco will be dating this week. Why the hell did he ask Marco out? It didn't make any sense at all… Of course, Marco was a cool guy, good looking too, but wtf? Ace was dead sure that he wasn't into guys. He swallowed his pizza angrily and opened the second box.

"What's wrong with you?" Nami asked, frowning.

"Mff?" Ace glared at her.

"You know I won't take your food, so why are you in such foul mood? You were all sunshine and kittens when you left, now it's like dark and twisty."

"I'm going to get my ass kicked, that's what," Ace growled, inhaling the second pizza in a matter of seconds.

"Ah, right, you did ran your judo captain over..." Nami smiled a little. "I hope you'll live to tell the tale, because Luffy will be sad, if you die."

"You and I both," Ace took the paper napkin Nami offered and wiped his face clean.

Ace was sure that he would get his ass handed to him later today. Marc couldn't have taken him seriously, could he? Ace sighed, as he went to throw away the cartons. Why the hell did he do that?! He knew he wasn't the brightest bulb in the bunch, but this was a new level of stupidity even for him.

(^_^)

Marco walked into the school territory after spending the whole morning at the dentist's. That old hag was a monster sadist, he had no idea whatsoever, why the hell Pops listed her as their family dentist. He silently promised that this would be the last time that he went to her, he was old enough to choose his own dentist.

The weather was really nice, so Marco was taking his time, walking slowly to his wing of school. He stopped and lifted his face to feel the sun and the light breeze. Marco closed his eyes and took a slow breath. He smiled, opened his eyes and took a step forward, only to be thrown to the ground, as something collided with him. Scratch that, someone. That someone didn't even react to collision, just rolled over and kept on running as if his life depended on it. Marco heard the hastily muttered 'sorry', as the boy sped away, only to collide with the wall, close to the school gate in a couple of seconds.

Marco got to his feet and dusted himself off; years of training paid off, since he didn't hurt himself. As he leaned down to get his bag, he noticed a wallet, which was, most definitely, not his. Marco looked at the boy who ran him over, to see like ten pizza boxes in his hands. Marco walked over to him, as he watched the pizza delivery guy check the pockets. He came over in time to hear the boy exclaim:

"No way! Law gave me money, plus I had my wallet with me!"

"I believe this is yours?" Marco said, placing the wallet on top of the pizza boxes.

"Wow, thanks, man!" the boy, who ran Marco over, smiled widely at the blond, making the latter wish for a pair of sunglasses – that smile positively blinded him.

"That looked really painful, are you alright?" the pizza guy asked, looking concerned. Well, if it was anybody but Marco, they would have needed an ambulance.

"Could have been worse," Marco chuckled, as he eyed the pizza boxes. It sure looked uncomfortable, so he asked: "Do you need a hand with those?"

The boy clutched the pizza boxes as if Marco was trying to steal them from him. It looked really funny, the boy looked like a cat, protecting its food. As the pizza guy said goodbye and left, Marco decided to try again:

"Are you sure you don't need help with those?" that earned him a glare from the boy. As the boy turned around, Marco could finally see his face. It looked oddly familiar, but, on the other hand, the whole school looked oddly familiar to Marco – he was really bad at remembering people, faces and names alike. The boy had black hair, parted in the middle, so that long bangs wouldn't get in the eyes. The eyes were silvery grey, which was a first for Marco – he had never seen that kind of eye colour before. To top everything, there were freckles, scattered all over the cheeks and nose, making him look younger than he was.

The boy paled, as he saw, who he was glaring at. His silver eyes widened a lot, as colour drained from his face. Judging by such a reaction, Marco placed the boy in his judo club. Otherwise, the reaction would have been a red face, not a scared look, as if Marco was going to dismember him.

"Marco-sempai, I'm so sorry!" that confirmed Marco's guess, the boy was in his club for sure. He couldn't help but smile, as the boy tried to bow, but almost lost his pizza boxes, so he stopped, shrinking a little. Then the realization hit him: "Please don't tell me it was you I ran over, on my way here…"

"It's fine, it was my own fault for spacing out like that," Marco tried not to laugh at the reaction, but a smile still found its way on his face. The boy relaxed a little, when he saw the smile, so Marco tried to establish some contact. "But you sure are fast, why aren't you on the track and field team?"

The answer did Marco in – he chuckled, trying not to laugh out loud. He looked at pizza boxes in the boy's hands and smiled wider.

"Right, food," Marco was laughing inside, thinking that if the boy had somebody with food, waiting for him on the finish line, he would beat all and every record. He should really think about the possibility of offering food to the boy, to see what he could do in the dojo.

"Who are you dating this week?" the boy asked, bringing Marco back to earth, as he was thinking of what kind of food should he use as a bait.

"Nobody yet, I was at the dentist's all morning," Marco shuddered at the memory, he was not going back there anytime soon, even if his life depended on it. "I have to say, dentists are sadists, at least mine is."

"Is that so?" the boy said thoughtfully. Next question caught Marco somewhat off guard. "Would you go out with me, sempai?"

Marco blinked, but quickly composed himself.

"I can't see why not," he gave the boy a smile and waved his hand, walking in opposite direction. "I'll see you at the dojo."

Marco went to his classroom, thinking. To everyone else, this it looked like a game, but it never was one. A week was not long enough to get to know a person, but it was long enough to fall in love. Marco may have been a hopeless romantic for believing in love, but still, he did. It was never a game for him, he was serious every single week… Marco sighed, as he shook his head – why was he still hopeful at the beginning of each week, he couldn't understand. He stopped, as something on the board of notice caught his attention.

It was the 'Most Wanted' list. He looked at it intently. There was he, in the first place for the nth time in a row. The second place was taken by the kendo captain, Roronoa Zoro. Marco knew the guy pretty well, he was a beast when it came to fighting. The third was some red head called Mikan Nami. She looked familiar, maybe because he dated her for one week last year. The fourth was Nico Robin, his classmate and friend, she was the only one, who didn't consider Marco's daring a game; she was also one of those he dated first. Fifth was Black Sanji, Marco knew him only because he was Zoro's boyfriend. He was one of the few who knew, not even the short info provided on each person mentioned that, to the whole school they were single.

Finally, Marco saw what got his attention. Number six. The small picture met him with a familiar blinding smile and freckles all over the cheeks. Portgas D. Ace, second year, part of the judo team. Just as Marco guessed. However, nothing ever mentioned his obsession with food or how fast the guy was. Apparently, he was brother to Monkey D. Luffy, who was in the first year and, for whatever reason, number ten on the 'Most Wanted' list. Marco looked at that kid, who was smiling broadly at the camera, holding his straw hat in place. According to the information, that goofy kid was dating the girl, who was ranked number three. That was baffling, to say the least.

Marco sighed again, at least he got to know who he was dating this time - otherwise it would have been really embarrassing. He walked slowly to his classroom, not in a need to hurry. Halfway to his classroom he met Robin, who was coming back from the bathroom. She nodded at him and took out her notebook, the one she always had with her, no matter what. She scribbled something quickly and in one swift motion, she stuck, whatever she wrote, to his forehead. Marco raised his eyebrows, as he removed what turned out to be a sticker, not unlike those people use on Christmas presents. On the sticker was written in Robin's nice handwriting 'Taken'.

Marco chuckled, as he stuck the sticker onto his blazer, which was part of the school uniform.

"How do you always know?" he asked with a smile.

"You are easy to read, once people get to know you," Robin smiled one of her mysterious smiles.

"Then it's a good thing that there aren't many people, who know me," Marco bowed his head a little.

"If you say so," Robin bowed her head as well. She never asked, who was Marco dating – she figured it out herself in a matter of two days. She knew that it was hopeless to ask Marco – he never told anyone, it was always the person who he dated that spilled the beans. That was one of the reasons why Marco liked having Robin as a friend – you never needed to say anything to her, she knew it already.

"Yeah…" Marco said, as they walked into the classroom – they had a self-study period, as it seemed. He could not help but feel a little bit hopeful – maybe this time would be different.

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**That would be chapter one. Please tell me what you thought of it and, just in case, english is not my mother tongue. Next chapter will probably be posted some time next week, but I make no promises.**

**Cya,**

**Rhe.**

**PS. Looking for a beta (thought this is faster then look over all of them). PM if interested.**


	2. Monday (Part 2)

**Hi again!  
****Yeah, I'm keeping my promise here :)  
Lines in bold in the story are either sms or fb.  
****Disclaimer: not mine... Eichiro Oda and Rihito Takarai****  
**

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Marco sat down behind his desk and took out his books. Next period was English, so he better look through his textbook, just in case. Marco opened the book on the page he needed and stared at it, not seeing anything written there. After five minutes of blank staring, he sighed and took out his phone. He logged in on facebook and opened the search engine. Slightly unsure, Marco typed Portgas. This wasn't fair towards the guy, but Marco had to at least know, who he will be dating.

He raised his eyebrows at the fact that Portgas D. Ace in his friend list. On the other hand, he had no idea who else he had as a friend on facebook. The entire school for sure. Marco only accepted friend requests if he and the person asking had at least a couple mutual friends. Marco looked up Ace's profile, to be greeted by a group photo. There was Ace, in the middle of a group, where everybody had arms around the shoulders of the person next to them. To Ace's right was the red-head, number three in the list, to his left was his little brother. The red head was hugging a boy, who looked as if he slept at least a month ago and that boy had his arm around a small boy with messy brown hair and big brown eyes. Ace's brother hugged Zoro, who had Sanji close to him.

That surprised Marco, he didn't expect Ace to know Zoro and Sanji, much less to be on hugging terms with the good looking red head. Marco turned his attention to the profile picture. Ace's profile picture was an unexpected one, to say the least. He was sitting in a flower field, having a wreath of flowers on his head and a bunch of them in his arms. The flowers were probably from the very field Ace was sitting in, since they were the same colour. Ace had an orange t-shirt on him and a bright orange hat, hanging on his back. He smiled brightly at the camera, the smile being warm and happy.

Marco pressed on the photo, to see the comments. There was a text, written by Ace, when he uploaded the photo: '**Thanks Luffy and Sabo for the flowers! We should go hiking more often.**' Marco looked at the first comment, made by, apparently the very same Sabo, who was mentioned. '**Don't you look like a princess XD yeah, sure, I'll give you a call when I can… Mariejois is killing me…**' The next comment was from Luffy '**I liked the wolves best :D'** to which Ace responded by **'You idiot, we almost became a dinner!'**

The comments turned into an all-out argument between the three boys with some comments from other people here and there, all calling Ace either a princess, a pretty boy or, the weirdest part, the sleeping beauty. Just in case, Marco looked at the picture, but Ace was awake there. Given that the number of people who called Ace a sleeping beauty was large, Marco assumed it to be an inside joke. He went back to the profile page, only to see that while he was looking at the comments, there was a status update from Ace: '**When the hell will I need to use the limit of a sequence in real life?!**' Marco raised an eyebrow at that – he had no idea that Ace was in an advanced math class. On the other hand, he didn't even know the boy's name half an hour ago.

The status update already had a comment, made by that Sabo, who, apparently, was Ace's close friend. '**Just don't. Otherwise I'll start bitching about my school and u don't want that XD**'. To that, Ace replied '**U had a choice, so stop bitching about it XD So not my fault u chose Mariejois over Enies Lobby :D**'. Marco's eyebrows rose, as he stared at that comment. Mariejois High was practically the best one in the country, those who graduated from Mariejois could get into whatever university they wanted. Enies Lobby High was also a good one, ranked in top ten, but if Marco could choose, he'd go to Mariejois. To be able to do that, you needed A LOT of money or to be a genius. The only reason Marco could get into the Enies Lobby was his scholarship, which he got from judo.

Meanwhile, that Sabo guy answered to Ace's comment. His answer made Marco blink a couple of times, because his mind could not comprehend the message: '**It's your fault I'm all alone here, 'cause u didn't want to wake up an hour earlier to get to Mariejois!'** That was certainly the factor which Marco could not grasp – did Ace have a possibility to go to Mariejois, but chose Enies Lobby only because he liked to sleep? Did the same apply to his brother? Just who were his parents?

Marco got an answer to that pretty fast – Ace wrote '**Shut it, gramps almost sent me to the hospital because of that…**' '**Right, u live with Garp… Poor u :'D**'. There was only one Garp that Marco knew of – Monkey D. Garp, one very high ranked politician, ex-marine too. If Ace lived with that man, there was no surprise in the fact that he could go to Mariejois. However, the surnames didn't match, because Marco was certain that Ace's brother's surname was Monkey D., just like Garp's. Was he adopted? Marco knew he could relate to that – he had fourteen siblings, all of them adopted and he was the oldest one.

Of course, given that there were a lot of mouths to feed, they weren't very rich and Marco, being the eldest, had to set an example for his younger siblings. He knew that Pops was proud of him – to score a scholarship to Enies Lobby was a big thing, he was the only one so far. His brother Thatch got into the Water 7 High, which was also a good one, but not as good as Enies Lobby. Suddenly Marco felt a wave of anger rise and he logged out of facebook, not wanting to see anything else. He had to work very hard to get to this high school, but Ace turned Mariejois down to get an extra hour of sleep in the morning? The whole thing reeked of 'spoiled brat', the very thing Marco hated the most. Now, he really hated himself for agreeing to date that brat. This week was going to suck, for sure.

(^_^)

Ace was angry, angry to the point of burning his math book, to the point of assaulting his math teacher, to the point of setting the whole school on fire. He was reasonably good at maths, but if it was up to him, he'd go to the normal math class, but Garp decided that Ace would go to the advanced one. The worst part was that he couldn't change classes by himself, he needed approve of the guardian, which he wasn't likely to get, because that guardian wanted Ace in the advanced class. Luffy, on the other hand, went to the easy math class, even Garp knew that he could only expect so much, when it came to math and Luffy. If there was an all-you-can-eat subject at school, Luffy would have been the model student, but there wasn't one, so Luffy barely managed to pass his other subjects.

"Can you fucking explain it in a way somebody in this class could understand?!" Ace's patience burst, as he yelled at the stupid teacher, standing up and hitting his desk with his fist.

"Mr Portgas, don't raise your voice in class! And, above all, don't use such vulgar language at school!" the teacher glared at Ace, but said it in somewhat calm voice. "Sit down, please."

"No fucking way!" Ace growled, what could he say – he had a problem with authority. "Not until you explain in normal language."

"Mr Portgas, if you won't sit down, I'll have to ask you to leave the classroom," the teacher said, glaring.

"Fine by me!" Ace left his books on his desk, as he went to the door. He slammed it loudly behind him, as he went to the corridor. Still feeling angry, he hit the door with his fist, making it rattle loudly. Ace growled, as he walked away from the classroom – hopefully, this will get Garp into school and Ace out of the advanced math class. Ace went to the stairs, to get out of the school and to the school yard. He needed to go somewhere quiet, where he could calm down and, maybe, sleep.

(^_^)

Marco could not believe his eyes – was that brat skipping classes too? Why else would he be going through the school yard during lessons? The brat walked quickly, it was either because he didn't want to be seen or because he was angry. Marco thought that version number two was a better one – if he didn't want to be seen, he should not have walked across the yard so that everybody could see him. 'Just how much of an ungrateful brat is he,' Marco thought angrily. He had every possibility in the world yet he was throwing them away. Marco glared at the boy, who turned around the building and disappeared from sight.

He turned his full attention to the teacher, who was explaining English grammar on the whiteboard. Marco copied everything to his copybook, nodding to himself, as he understood how it worked. It made sense, everything had a logical explanation. The teacher ordered them to do exercises from the textbook and started walking around the classroom. As Marco stared at the first exercise, his thoughts went back to that spoiled brat. What the hell was his problem? Was it really that hard to appreciate the opportunities he had?

Marco shook his head violently – he had to focus on the exercise, because he worked very hard to get where he was now. He could not do anything to compromise his position, he didn't have a marine admiral behind him to ensure his place at this school. Marco scribbled angrily in his copybook, a plan forming in his head. He'll beat the living daylight out of that spoiled brat on every fucking training until he started to appreciate everything he had.

The lesson ended uneventfully, so Marco decided to go down to cafeteria to get some coffee. He had a late night, with all the homework he had to do. Robin went with him, following Marco silently. When they neared the cafeteria, she finally spoke:

"You are angry," this wasn't a question.

"I am," Marco replied; he stopped thinking about it long time ago, how come she knew everything.

"Why?"

"I thought you knew," Marco chuckled.

"I'm not all-knowing, I thought you knew that," Robin smiled.

"Hm, could have fooled me, I thought you knew everything," Marco got in line at the cafeteria; there was a fair number of people there.

"Since you are avoiding the subject, I think it has something to do with the person you'll be dating this week," Robin said in calm voice. Marco sighed – and here he got his hopes up that she didn't know everything. The line moved slowly and Marco was as quiet as a spy, who was in interrogation. Meanwhile, the interrogator kept talking: "Judging from your body-language, I am correct. So, I will conclude that you found out something you didn't like about them and now you are unsure what to do about that. I also think that this is someone I know personally."

Why was Marco friends with Robin again? He bought his coffee and was about to go out of the cafeteria, when he noticed a straw hat not far from him. Marco stopped for a second, but moved on, only to be almost run over by Ace for the second time this day. Ace didn't even notice him, as he went strictly for his brother.

"Luffy! Run!" Ace yelled. "Old man is here!"

The boy with the straw hat turned around, his eyes round and scared, and then both of them disappeared form the cafeteria, running as if their lives depended on it. Marco rose his eyebrows, thankful to lady luck that he didn't spill his coffee all over himself.

"YOU STUPID UNGRATEFUL BRATS!" yelled somebody and Marco miraculously saved his uniform from being stained with coffee, as he was almost run over for the third time. This time it was an elderly man, already grey-haired, but, judging by his speed and physique, was still kicking, quite literally too. Maybe, just maybe, Ace's and Luffy's life did depend on how fast they could run, Marco thought, as he watched Garp kick some boys out of his way.

"Ah, right, Luffy broke a window this morning…" Marco heard Robin say calmly. "And with Ace lashing out at math teacher, they better run."

"How did you know that?" Marco stared at Robin, she never ceased to surprise him.

"I have my ways," Robin smiled mysteriously. "I can't blame Ace, their teacher is really bad at explaining things."

Marco sipped his coffee, thinking. So that was the reason Ace skipped the lesson. Maybe, just maybe, he wasn't too much of a spoiled brat. Judging by how Garp stormed through cafeteria and how fast the brothers ran, they had a strict guardian. Was the statement about hospital serious? Garp did seem like a person to do it.

Marco and Robin went out to the school yard – it was lunch, but Marco already ate, after the dentist, and Robin always skipped lunch, for whatever reason. They were right on time to see Ace being thrown to the side, as he tried to get Garp to release Luffy, who was held by Garp by his collar, half a meter of the ground. Luffy was struggling too, thrashing around and occasionally, kicking his grandfather in the stomach. Garp totally ignored Luffy, dead set on catching Ace too.

Marco was sure that Garp got Ace, but Ace evaded it by ducking. Or what Marco though was ducking. Ace fell flat on the ground, as if somebody hit him hard on the head from behind. He was lifted by the scruff of his neck by Garp; Ace was absolutely motionless, hanging like a marionette.

"Good timing," Garp chuckled. "Luffy, stand still."

Garp put pouting Luffy down and threw Ace over his shoulder, the latter still being out cold. Luffy was standing close, not making any attempts to get away. Marco looked around – why wasn't anyone worried about Ace? He was sure that fainting like that should cause some commotion, but not one of the people, who gathered to watch the show, was bothered by it. Confused, Marco turned to Robin for answers; Garp was leaving, with Luffy leading the way and Ace over his shoulder.

"No need to worry, this happens pretty often," Robin smiled.

"He faints a lot? Isn't it bad, shouldn't he get checked out?" Marco frowned.

"Ace has narcolepsy," Robin said calmly, not concerned at all. "You're about the only one in the school who doesn't know it. It means he falls asleep suddenly."

"Oh…" Marco finally understood what 'sleeping beauty' meant. He chuckled, sleeping beauty indeed.

"Hm…" Robin looked at Marco intently and he was sure that she figured everything out. "You know, there is so much more to it than what you saw on facebook."

Marco sighed – sometimes Robin was scary, and he meant scary outside the dojo. There she was downright terrifying. She smiled at Marco, who was sure that she could read minds too.

"Well, there is a reason I'm called a Devil's Child," Robin chuckled.

"Who calls you that?" Marco stared, that was mean.

"Those who don't like me," Robin smiled. "There are few, who can stand me as I am."

"Hm," Marco finished his coffee and looked around for a trash can. "I couldn't tell, judging by you being number four," he found the trash can and walked there, with Robin following him.

"Appearances can be deceiving," Robin smiled.

"You would know everything about it," Marco chuckled.

"I do and I say that you don't know the whole story."

"Really now?"

"Marco, you should not judge the book by its cover."

"You are rephrasing things."

"Good, you noticed."

"Then what's the whole story?" Marco snapped. "If you intend to not to tell me, then stop saying it."

"I just want you to be open-minded and ask him yourself. It is not my place to spill the beans, so to speak."

"I am open-minded!"

"No, right now your mind is clouded by anger."

Marco huffed, angry with himself. He, Phoenix Marco, didn't lose his temper. And, more importantly, he stood by his word and he shouldn't need Robin, to remind him of it.

(^_^)

Ace slowly woke up from his slumber. The last thing he remembered was that old man got hold of Luffy. After that, his mind blacked out. One damn unfortunate timing that was. Ace groaned, as he sat up on the couch he was placed on. His head hurt, like always, when he fell face first to the ground. Luckily, his nose didn't seem broken and he felt more or less fine.

Ace opened his eyes and looked around. He was at the principal's office, no Garp or Luffy anywhere in the vicinity. The principal, Garp's former co-worker, Aokiji, was napping behind his desk. Ace cleared his throat, as he put his legs down. The principal stirred, opening one eye at him.

"Ah, awake, at last," Aokiji said, stretching lazily.

"I take it the meeting is over?" Ace asked, rubbing his face with his hands.

"Yeah, it is. Rejoice, you are out of the advanced math," Aokiji yawned. "I convinced Garp that it was for the best."

"Thanks a lot!" Ace's face lit up.

"Now, get out of here, your club activity starts in fifteen minutes."

"Thank you very much!" Ace stood up and bowed properly to the principal.

"Just get out."

Ace walked out of the principal's office, his heart singing in his chest – finally, finally he would stop going to the advanced math. He ran to his homeroom, to get his things. The school was mostly empty, since the students went to their club activities already. The classroom was empty, his things already packed. He would have to thank Nami for this, she always took care of his things whenever his narcolepsy decided it was time to say hi.

Ace grabbed his school bag, his sports bag and his blazer and ran out of the classroom. If he got lucky, he would be on time. He dashed through the school, out of the school and to the dojo. He'd be killed, if he was late, Marco-sempai was very strict when it came to training. Ace crashed through the doors of the dojo, slipped and almost fell down, as he ran for the changing room.

Ace must have been in lady luck's good graces, for when he tumbled into the changing room, there were a couple of people, changing. He threw his bags on the closest bench and started stripping, ignoring comments about him being a sleeping beauty. He changed quickly and walked through the doors, which separated the changing room from dojo. Ace quickly went to the line and sat down; he tried to ignore the glare Marco was giving him for almost being late. He just hoped he'll live past today's training.

The training started as usual, they bowed and were sent to do fifteen laps around school. Ace, who already did what could count as one lap, decided to save his power for later and was jogging in average pace. It didn't bother him one bit that he was passed by every member of the judo club. Ace knew that after six to eight laps he'll pass most of them. Given that the school premises weren't small, the laps were large and it took some time to pass. Ace only wished he had some music to go with laps.

His calculations were correct – after what Ace counted as seventh lap, he passed more than a half of the club with his steady pace. After the second lap Ace started humming whatever songs came to his mind. For whatever reason, he was stuck on the banana song, so he was jogging and muttering to himself 'ba-ba-ba ba-ba na-na, ba-ba-ba ba-ba na-na, banana-a-a potato na-a-a, banana-a-a'. When he was muttering 'potato-o-o', he heard a question:

"Food again?"

"Marco-sempai?" Ace blushed a little, as he lost his pace for a moment, but caught up in a second.

"Yo!" sempai raised his hand a little in a greeting manner, jogging beside Ace. "So, you'll do anything for food, huh?"

"Not anything…" Ace blushed, as he thought about what kind of impression of himself he gave to Marco – a food-crazed idiot.

"Almost anything, then."

"Not really…"

"But it's still high on the priority list?"

Ace nodded, blushing – denying was hopeless. He was an idiot, a huge one too. Marco chuckled at his nod and ran faster; Ace kept his pace. He jogged, thinking that this Monday was either the best Monday he had ever had (because of the math) or the worst (because of Marco).

After the jog, everybody gathered in front of dojo, stretching. Ace went straight for the drinking fountain. There was a line, but a small one – they had to be done stretching the moment Marco went inside. Ace got a mouthful of water and quickly moved out of the way. He saw Robin, who was with the karate group, and waved his hand. She waved back, blowing her cheeks up, until she looked like a hamster, and pointed at him. Ace swallowed the water and smiled at her. She hit her forehead lightly with her knuckles and pointed to Ace's left. Ace turned his head to see Marco walk into the dojo.

"Oh, shit…" Ace quickly followed, starting a domino chain.

Marco was already standing in the centre of the dojo, glaring at his club members. Ace tried to stand somewhere as far away from the scary sempai as possible, but he was out of luck. Marco headed towards Ace and Ace paled – he knew all too well, what that meant.

"You'll be sparring with me today," Marco said to Ace, who could hear the whole group exhale in relief.

Their coach came in and said to divide themselves into pairs. Ace was mentally writing his will, knowing that he won't have time for that later.

"Relax," he heard Marco say. "I'm not going to butcher you."

At that, Ace dared to look at his sempai, who was smiling. He exhaled silently and looked at his opponent – if he didn't give his very best, he'd get his ass handed to him on silver platter.

"I have been thinking about what you said this morning, about the finishing line and the food," said Marco, looking Ace in the eye. "How about it, I'll treat you to an all-you-can-eat buffet if you can beat me."

"Sempai, did you hit your head?" Ace asked, frowning – nobody ever took that seriously.

"No, I'm being serious."

"Are you sure?" Ace was very doubtful.

"Very. Give it your best shot." Marco challenged Ace.

"I hope you know what you're doing." Ace bowed and rose his hands to his shoulder level. He breathed slowly, calming himself. He was an experienced fighter and he still took a detour to the Grey Terminal after school twice a week. In front of him was just another thug from the Terminal and when did he lose to one of them?

Ace watched calmly, as Marco bowed and raised his hands. He was watched intently, he didn't have to see to know that. Another breath and Ace launched for his opponent. He didn't see his surroundings, not even his opponent's face. He was calm, his breathing even. The opponent was good, his speed and strength was better than Ace's, but Ace was just testing his opponent. When he felt that he was done testing, he grabbed the opponent's arm. 'Break it!' sounded in Ace's mind, but he wasn't fast enough – the opponent got his arm back and grabbed Ace's collar. Perfect. Moving much faster than before, Ace grabbed the hand grabbing his collar, turned and threw his opponent over his back. Ace added a finishing blow with his elbow to the opponent's solar plexus. After that, he quickly got to his feet, ready for another attack – thugs from the Grey Terminal seldom came alone.

The second attack came from behind, just as expected. Ace turned, landing two hits in the thug's stomach and a roundhouse kick on the shoulder and returning to his starting position – relaxed posture, arms raised to the shoulder level, palms out, slightly slouched and head bowed, eyes half-closed. He waited for the next opponent.

* * *

**Just want to say, that the whole story is going to be somewhat different from manga. The timeline will be the same, but, basically, I'm doing whatever I want here. **

**Next update will be somethime next week (hopefully, because I have one BIG exam then). **

**Thanks a lot for all the wonderful reviews, favourites and follows. **

**Rhe.**

**PS: still looking for a beta. Anyone?**


	3. Monday (Part 3)

**So, here I come! **

**After taking into consideration several things, I'm upping the rating of the story to M. Sorry to those who read this because it's a T.**

**Beta'ed by: Lady Spritzy and aqua-empress.**

**Disclaimer: not mine, Eichiro Oda, Rihito Takarai and Tachibana Venio(2nd author of the manga) .**

* * *

"I hope you know what you're doing," the boy in front of him said doubtfully, bowing.

Marco observed the posture of his sparring partner. He saw the boy relax, breathing steadily, calming down. It was an eerie calm before the storm. Marco fought every single one of his kouhai, so he knew their style and patterns. What he was seeing in front of him was something totally different. It wasn't the usual Ace, this was somebody else. Somebody who fought countless battles, who didn't need to see his surroundings, who felt them instead. Interesting.

Marco was surprised when Ace attacked him. He didn't see it coming, but he blocked the attack and tried to get a hold of Ace. The boy was fast, faster than usual, but Marco wasn't fighting to his fullest either. He knew he was being tested. Ace shifted subtly, and Marco knew the testing was over. Ace got hold of his arm, but Marco freed it and grabbed Ace's collar. Marco didn't foresee what happened next. Ace moved as a blur, grabbing Marco's hand, turning and throwing Marco over his back.

Marco didn't have time to catch his breath as his back hit the floor. Ace hit him with his elbow in the solar plexus, making Marco curl and gasp for air, but he kept his eyes on Ace. The boy returned to his starting position. Marco saw the coach come to Ace from behind and tap on Ace's shoulder. Marco sat up, watching intently. Ace moved with astounding speed, as he hit the coach twice in the stomach and added a roundhouse to the shoulder, sending the coach to the floor. Marco got to his feet, as he watched Ace return to his starting position.

He took a step forward, palms out in a calming gesture, but Ace lashed out at him. This time Marco didn't underestimate his opponent. This wasn't even a judo fight anymore. For whatever reason, Ace was apparently fighting for his life. The whole dojo was watching them now, as they blocked, kicked, landed hits and evaded each other's attacks. It had been a long while since Marco got to fight all-out like this. Last time was when Robin got pissed at him and fought him without holding back.

It was fun. The longer they fought, the better they got to know each other. Marco noticed a pattern in Ace's movements, or, at least, he thought it to be a pattern. From time to time Ace made a little grabbing motion as if there was something missing, like a stick or a spear. It only intensified Marco's attention on Ace: if there was one pattern, there would definitely be more.

The fight dragged on, with only the sound of the two fighters filling the air. Finally Marco saw an opening. He had to trust his instincts and not his head, which was yelling that it was a trap. He used the opening as his instincts told him to, getting Ace flat on his stomach on the tatami, his arms held in a lock by Marco, who was sitting on Ace's back. To say that Ace gave up without a fight would be an understatement of the year. Ace thrashed under Marco like a cornered wild animal. The whole situation looked ridiculously like a rodeo Marco once saw on the TV.

"Hey now, I know you want to win, but I'm not up for round three for the next half an hour, so quit struggling," Marco said, breathing heavily.

He felt Ace relax under him and warily ask:

"Marco-sempai?"

Marco's instincts told him that it was safe to let go, so he released Ace and rose.

"Yeah. I knew I was right to use food as a trigger," Marco chuckled, holding out his hand to Ace.

The boy turned around, sitting up. He stared, unsure, at the hand, but accepted it. Marco pulled Ace up to his feet and a scattered applause started, tentative at first, but stronger and louder by the second. The coach walked over to them, clapping as well.

"You two can go now, you earned it," the coach said to them. "The rest of you, start again!"

Marco had to drag Ace out of the dojo, because the latter was dazed and unfocused. They got to the changing room and Marco released the boy.

"I didn't hurt anyone, did I?" Marco heard Ace ask as he was stripping to go to the shower.

"You kicked coach pretty hard, but I think he's fine," Marco shrugged as he grabbed his towel and headed towards the shower. "By the way, you earned that buffet. I misjudged you in the first round. I guess this shines a new light on 'everything for food'."

Marco turned on the water, standing out of its way – he knew these showers all too well - he'd either get a frostbite or a burn, if he stood under the water. This time it would have been a frostbite, so Marco adjusted the temperature and stepped under the shower. He closed his eyes and raised his face to the water, sighing in content. It had been a good training session - his body hadn't ached like that in ages. Marco heard Ace walk into the showers, taking one next to him – showers were divided by walls, up to Marco's elbow.

"You are quiet," Marco noticed, as he grabbed his shampoo. When he didn't get a reply, he asked, "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"The Grey Terminal…" Ace mumbled, fixing his shower temperature.

"Where's that? Never heard of it," Marco looked at Ace curiously.

"Outside the East Blue district," Ace closed his eyes and ran his hands through his hair.

"Is that a school?"

"In a way, sure."

Marco raised his eyebrows at that. It sounded as if Ace didn't really want him to know what it was. Well, he'd find out eventually. They showered in silence, in Ace's case it was somewhat depressed silence.

"So, when do you want to collect your prize?" Marco made another attempt to get Ace talking once they were in the changing room. As they dressed, Marco couldn't help but inspect Ace's body. It wasn't hard, since the boy was distracted and wasn't paying attention to his surroundings. Marco liked what he saw – defined muscles flexing under the skin as Ace moved, lean, trained body… Marco liked it a lot. His previous anger at Ace long forgotten, he was busy enjoying the view the boy provided while he put on his pants.

"What prize? I lost," Ace grumbled as he leaned down for the white singlet he wore under the school shirt.

"Not the first round," Marco swallowed as he continued to stare at the boy in front of him. Damn, he looked good.

"Huh?" Ace turned around, staring at Marco in disbelief, who hastily put on his own pants. "No, I didn't!"

"So it wasn't you who hit my solar plexus with your elbow?" Marco put on his black t-shirt, but stopped and pointed to the forming bruise. Ace stared at the spot, but caught himself and turned around, but Marco still noticed slight blush on the other's face. "Thought so. So, when are you collecting your prize? Anytime is fine."

The boy continued to gather his things, not looking at Marco, so Marco walked over to him and cleared his throat.

"If not today, how about we exchange phone numbers, so you can give me a call whenever you want it?" Marco suggested.

Ace looked hesitant, but took out his mobile and wrote down Marco's contact information. Marco did the same with Ace's number.

"Good," Marco smiled. "Feel free to call me any time of the day."

Ace nodded as he packed his uniform and said goodbye, leaving quickly. Marco sighed, packing his own stuff. There was something wrong with that kid. He looked scared stiff, but not of Marco. It was more like he was afraid of himself. Marco recognised the look alright, after all, he wasn't too different. He was grateful to Pops, for teaching him to control his strength and to keep his emotions under control. Thanks to Pops, Marco didn't slip for the last five years. He fixed his grades and even got as far as Enies Lobby, something that people at the orphanage thought impossible. Everybody that Pops took in was considered a hopeless case, good for nothing, scum.… He helped them to set things right, to prove themselves, to start anew.

Marco actually sent a copy of his scholarship to the orphanage, to show them how wrong they were. Of course, they didn't believe him until he came over in his new school uniform and showed them his new school identification card. The look on their faces had been priceless. Former problem child, bully and basically worthless waste of space has turned into a model student, all thanks to one man who just gave him a chance. Frankly, Marco would never even begin to be able to repay Pops. What he could do, though, was to guarantee Pops wouldn't regret his decision.

Marco walked to the bus stop slowly. He was calm and content with his life. He turned a corner, surprised to see Ace talking on his cell.

"No, I'll come over, it's not a problem. What are you talking about, Dadan? My homework will be fine, I'll just drop by and help out. Will you stop that? No, Luffy won't be coming, I finished early today. What should I get you? Will you shut it, I'm dropping by the convenience store anyway. Yeah, see you in an hour." Ace pressed the end call button and as he put his phone away, he looked up to see Marco's curious expression.

"Who was that?" Marco asked, not expecting an answer. After all, he was sticking his nose into another person's business.

"Someone I know broke her leg, the idiot, and she needs some help around the house. Nobody will be home until later," Ace sighed.

"Oh.…" Marco raised an eyebrow at that. There was a slight awkward silence.

"Well, see you around, sempai," Ace waved his hand and ran off.

Marco stared after him, frowning. Was it him, or did his boyfriend (albeit only for this week) just ran off to meet a woman? Robin's face flashed in his mind, as Marco shook his head. He shouldn't be jealous without any good reason. Wait, why would he be jealous? Marco walked to the bus stop, sighing, surprised with himself. Yeah, the boy had one painfully hot body, a matching face and, most importantly, was one hell of a fighter… Wait, what was he wondering about? Ah, right, it felt really good, when he pinned Ace down in the dojo… He wasn't thinking about that at the time, but looking back… Despite keikogi being in the way, he could feel Ace's nice body very well and he got a good look in the changing room…

Marco blinked as his bus pulled up before him. That was a new development, for sure. Not the buss, Ace. Marco stepped into the bus and took an empty seat by the window, deep in thought. He'd really like to pin Ace down, but without any annoying clothes in his way. Marco stirred once again – what the hell was wrong with him? Still, it would have been amazing, really… Feeling that body against him, as he bent down to kiss Ace's neck and shoulders, one hand holding down Ace's hands, the other sneaking down to stroke Ace's already hard member, at the same time as his own rubbed against that amazing ass he had privilege to see in the changing room…

Marco's eyes flew open, as he stared, horrified, in front of him. He _did not_ just imagine that! He wasn't even aware of the boy this morning, something must be seriously wrong with him. Marco stared out the window, counting white cars and trying not to think about two things – the raven-haired boy with blinding smile and a certain problem, which only became harder when he thought about the origins of it. Somehow he had the feeling that this week wouldn't be as easy as he thought it to be. More like punishment for the crimes he committed before Pops took him in. Given, that there was one hell of a long list of those, the retribution was going to be a bitch. Marco could barely sit in place until his stop came. He flew out of the bus and ran to his house. He needed one frigid shower, right now.

His house was five hundred metres from the bus stop and stood out like a white crow among its black brethren. It was four storeys high, made of bricks and had a white roof. Inside, each floor had five rooms and two bathrooms, with the first floor also containing the kitchen, dining room, two living rooms, laundry room and pantry. While there was no cellar, there was an attic. On the fifth floor lived Pops with the biggest bedroom and a private bathroom, Marco, Thatch, Vista and Jozu, who each had decent sized rooms and shared a bathroom. On the third floor lived Blamenco, Rakuyo, Namur, Blenheim and Curiel. The second floor was occupied by Kingdew, Atmos, Jiru and Fossa, Haruta and Izo shared a room, being the youngest. Marco thought that he'd have to move to the attic or move out soon – Haruta and Izo were old enough to have their own rooms.

Marco literally sneaked to the door and cracked it open carefully. Pops was almost always at home as he was retired and had some health issues, but he was the last on the list of the people Marco didn't want to see in his current state. He really didn't want to end up in an interrogation before he got a chance to go and take a shower.

He flew up the stairs as silently as possible, knowing all too well which stairs creaked and which were safe. Marco got to the fourth floor and went straight for his room. His biggest advantage was that he came home early and nobody expected that. He grabbed a change of clothes and sneaked to the bathroom, which, thankfully, was empty. Marco locked the door and could finally exhale. Now, to face his problem at hand. Marco glared at himself in the mirror – this was not like him. He didn't lose control that easily, even if it was one hell of a good fight and Ace was oh so tempting.

"Get a hold of yourself, you idiot!" Marco growled to himself as he took off his clothes and got into the shower. The problem was still present and didn't seem to be going away anytime soon, so he turned on the shower, setting it on the coldest possible.

The water was ice cold, but it served its purpose – Marco exhaled as his problem shrank. If this was going to continue being an issue, he would probably have to consider calling in sick.

After the shower Marco went down to the kitchen to get some food before he had to start doing his homework for tomorrow. As he expected, the old man was in the kitchen, sitting in his chair and drinking tea as he read the newspaper.

"You're early, kid," the man lifted his eyes from the paper and looked at Marco.

"The coach let me go early," Marco shrugged.

"That so?" Marco knew he was supposed to elaborate, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead, he just shrugged as he looked into the fridge. There wasn't any food he could just warm up and eat, so he decided on making spaghetti with tomatoes and feta-cheese. Preparing the things he needed for cooking, he felt the old man's ever-watchful eyes on him.

"Something bothering you, kid?" the old man asked, when Marco put the spaghetti into the water.

Marco thought about it for a moment. Then he remembered he had questions, that needed answers, so he could ask them now just as well.

"Have you ever heard of Grey Terminal?" Marco asked.

"What about it?" Pops asked.

"Well, a friend of mine said it was kind of like school, so…" Marco didn't finish as his old man started laughing loudly after he heard the word 'school'. "I take it that it's not," Marco said, as he washed tomatoes.

"Your friend has one damn good sense of humour…" the old man chuckled. "You can sure look at it that way, but no, it's not a school. It's not a place you want to end up, 'cause that's one fast way to get mugged, raped or killed." Marco stared at Pops with wide eyes, tomatoes completely forgotten. Meanwhile, Pops continued. "It's at the foot of mount Corvo, and you don't want to go there either, 'cause there are real thugs up on that mountain. If down at the Grey Terminal they have just unfortunate people mixed with scum, on that mountain there are real cutthroats, who would kill you without as much as blinking. You can call it survival school, if you'd like that."

Marco blinked, completely confused. What could Ace be possibly doing in such a place was beyond his comprehension.

"How did Grey Terminal came up in the conversation?" Pops asked, frowning.

"I asked him where he learned to fight, and he said Grey Terminal," Marco answered, back to washing and cutting tomatoes.

"That so? Then you have one interesting friend, kid. No one comes to the Grey Terminal willingly, just as nobody wants their kids to end up at Impel Down."

"Is it really that bad?" Marco took out a frying pan and put it on the stove, happy that he had his back to Pops – his face was that of complete horror. He had been well on his way to Impel Down before Pops came into the picture. There was only one thing he could think when Impel Down was mentioned, and that was 'they won't take me alive'.

Impel Down was an institution for 'troubled' teenagers. They called it that, but Marco knew better, since he had gotten a tour through the place while he was still at the orphanage. It was a lot like the concentration camps from the WWII, only cleaner. All in all, Marco rather be dead than come there again.

"Well, don't you sound like a spoiled brat, kid… And no, it's not as bad as Impel Down. It's much worse. At Impel Down they have rules, but in the Grey Terminal it's absolute anarchy. Is that friend of yours from your school?"

"Yeah, he's in my club…" Marco answered; he flinched when Pops called him a spoiled brat. That was exactly what he accused Ace of being, when in reality, he knew nothing about him. Marco had made assumptions and believed in them as if it was the sole truth.

"That so? Well, I sure hope you are nice to that kid, he's been through some tough shit for sure."

Marco hummed, nodding, as he put the tomatoes on the frying pan. He had a lot to think about and none of it was pleasant. He frowned – he didn't like that he jumped to conclusions. At least he kind of understood why Ace didn't go to Mariejois - he would sure feel out of place there, where everybody (he's jumping to assumptions again, damn it) had anything they wanted brought to them on silver platter. Fine, maybe not everybody, but definitely vast majority.

Marco finished cooking and ate quickly in silence – the old man went upstairs to take a nap right after he told Marco to be nice to Ace and nobody else came down. Marco was fine with that though, as he wouldn't be much of a company anyway. After he ate and washed the dishes after himself, he went back to his room and started his homework.

As always, there was a lot of it, so Marco took breaks when he needed to keep his concentration. When he was done it was around eight o'clock in the evening. Marco pushed his books away from him tiredly and reached for his old laptop. The only thing it was good for was surfing the net and writing essays, which was fine as Marco didn't have time for computer games. He only ever occasionally played Minesweeper, which was built in.

He opened the laptop and turned it on. Then Marco got up from the chair and went down to the kitchen – it took really long time for his laptop to fire up. The kitchen was empty, which was odd, but Marco didn't mind it. He looked through the fridge, but it was completely empty, meaning that most of the people in the house were out buying food. Marco fished his mobile from his pocket and called Thatch.

"Yeah?" Thatch answered pretty quickly, only after three tones.

"You out shopping?" Marco asked, thoughtfully looking at the empty fridge.

"Yeah, you need something?"

"I just wanted a snack and the fridge is totally raided," Marco said as he closed it and sat down on one of the chairs.

"What did you expect? Anyways, we didn't wanna bother you, but Izo baked some muffins and we left you a couple to keep you alive until we get back with food," Thatch answered.

"And where did you hide them?"

"They should be in the oven, so look there. If you can't find them, then you'll have to starve until we get back."

"Thanks," Marco sighed and ended the call.

He went to the stove and, luckily for him, there were three raspberry muffins there, waiting for him. Deciding that the tea would go well with them, he put some water on to boil. Taking the biggest mug he could find (and it was a BIG one), he picked the tea and waited for the water. Soon enough he had a brick with a mug of black tea and three raspberry muffins to carry up to his room.

By that time his laptop was good enough to use it, so he got himself comfortable in his convertible sofa and logged in on facebook. After typing Portgas in the search engine the second time this day, Marco felt a lot like a stalker. There was a status update from Ace, just a couple of minutes ago: '**Spent the day at Dadan's :) have been doing chores all day :( homework can go to hell, I'm going to bed'**.

The first comment was Luffy's:

**'I think dadan looks like nami :D**'

'**lol XD**' - Ace.

'**rofl X'D**' - Sabo.

'**take that back!**' – Nami.

Marco frowned. If Ace spent the rest of his day doing chores for a woman who looked like Nami, why did he ask him out? Of course, there was a possibility of them being just friends, but that did little to ease the weird feeling in Marco's chest. Then Marco saw that Ace shared Sabo's status with a link. '**Last week's session is up, the crew did a great job as always. Thanks for doing this, it means a lot to me.**'

Marco raised his eyebrows – it sounded very cryptic, so he followed the link to see what this was all about. The link led to a picture gallery on a website, which seemed to belong to a fashion brand called 'Criminal'. The logo was a star with stitches across it, reminding Marco of Zoro's scar.

Slightly curious, Marco selected the first picture. His eyes widened a lot and he choked on the muffin, when he saw, who was on that picture. It just had to be Ace, wearing faded jeans, light blue shirt with sleeves rolled up to his elbows, dark-grey waistcoat, blue converse sneakers and a black fedora on his head. To make everything even stranger, he was somewhere in the city – Marco recognised the brick road and older buildings, - in the middle of a street with occasional passer-by's. To top everything off, Ace was in mid-jump. Ace's left side was to the camera, as he hovered almost a meter off the ground, knees up almost to his chest, the right one slightly higher than the left one, his left arm extended back with a black leather bracelet on the wrist, his right hand holding the fedora in place, but it slid down, covering the forehead. Ace's face was turned to camera only a little bit, but enough to see a smile on his lips and one grey eye, peaking at the camera from under the fedora. Marco had to admit – Ace looked good. More like awesome. Or hot. What more, he looked like he knew what he was doing, judging by the effortlessness of the smile and chosen angle.

Marco pressed on the arrow, to the next picture and there was Ace, again. He was jumping as well, but this was totally different. Ace's left hand was touching the ground, his right holding the hat in place. It looked like he was caught in the middle of somersault, his legs bent at the knees and the shirt slid down, revealing a lot of nicely toned stomach and the v-shaped muscle, as it was cut off by the jeans.

Next picture was again Ace, this time just strolling down the street, looking relaxed, the fedora was gone and his hands were in the front pockets of the jeans. Ace looked away from camera to his right, smiling. Next picture was different – it was Ace with Luffy on his back, both grinning at the camera. After that came a couple of pictures of Luffy alone, and then came a picture of Ace and Robin, walking hand in hand, talking to each other. After that – Ace walked between Nami and Robin, all three of them looking stunning. There were a couple of pictures of Luffy with each of the girls and then came Ace again, this time with Zoro. Zoro was ruffling Ace's hair as Ace was laughing and trying to get away from Zoro.

All in all, there were six of them – Ace, Luffy, Nami, Robin, Zoro and Sanji. Every single one of them looked like they knew what they were doing, confident in front of the camera. Apparently, they wore the clothes from the brand, as there was a small logo in the bottom right corner of every picture. In the bottom left corner, there was a small top hat and under every photo was a link to another website, which Marco typed hesitantly.

He was met by a video. Large white cursive letters on black stated: "The Top Hat Studio presents Firefish (there was a picture of Ace, taken in a studio, as he was smiling widely at the camera), Mugiwara (followed by a picture of Luffy), Cat Burglar (Nami), Devil Child (Robin), Kenshi (Zoro), All-Blue (Sanji), Empress (there was a picture of stunningly beautiful young woman with long black hair and dark blue eyes, wearing golden earrings in form of snakes), Surgeon (the boy on the picture was the same one as on Ace's page, the one who looked like he haven't slept in several weeks) and Tanuki (another boy from Ace's page, the small one with messy brown hair and big brown eyes). Welcome!"

After five minutes of browsing on the website, namely the pictures under the tab Firefish, Marco closed his laptop angrily, damn sure that he'll be having some very interesting dreams at night, the ones that needed a follow-up in form of a frigid shower on the next morning.

* * *

**Yes, I am aware it says Firefish, I did it on purpose XD **

**Thanks again for the reviews and favourites and follows. **

**Rhe.**


	4. Tuesday (Part 1)

**Hi again!**

**Beta'ed by aqua-empress.**

**Disclaimer: I suppose you already know what should be here. Not mine.**

* * *

On Tuesday morning Ace woke up as per usual, meaning he was literally dragged out of bed by Luffy, who woke up because of Ace's alarm. It worked perfectly for them – Luffy always forgot to set his own and Ace always slept through his. As he stumbled to his bathroom, Ace was barely aware of the surroundings. It was not unusual that he fell back asleep as he brushed his teeth, only to be woken up by Luffy with a cup of coffee in his hands. Coffee was about the only thing Luffy knew how to make and it took him several years to learn.

Ace jumped as Luffy touched his shoulder – he fell asleep standing in the bathroom. He thanked his brother for coffee and, after brushing his teeth, he took the mug from Luffy. Ace was somewhat envious of Luffy – it seemed like the kid only needed to breathe in the coffee aroma to wake up. Ace, on the other hand, needed a full mug of black coffee with a shitload of sugar, because coffee without sugar was just disgusting. Even with sugar and milk, it tasted disgusting, the only reason Ace kept drinking that shit was because it was the only thing that successfully kept him awake. His meds didn't work, although he still took them because he had to.

"Thank God for Marco Polo and coffee…" Ace muttered, as he moved to his bedroom with his mug. "Damn, if he didn't go to China, I'd be screwed by now…"

Ace went to his wardrobe, where his school uniform was hanging. He had several sets of the uniform, because it got dirty often – there was no telling when or where he'd fall asleep, sometimes literally. Ace dressed quickly and went down to the kitchen to make breakfast for himself and Luffy. There weren't many things that Ace thanked God for, but coffee and fridges with electronic locks were two of them. He was the only one in the house, who knew the combination and had a key to open the fridge, for obvious reasons. Despite worshipping food, Ace was well aware of his brother's needs, thus he held himself in check at home.

The breakfast was simple – just a lot of eggs and some bacon (more like a lot of bacon and some eggs). Ace inhaled his before Luffy could finish his own (he really could show this ability off for money) and ran up to his room to get his bag. When he came back, he sent Luffy to get his bag, while he opened the fridge and took out the bentos he prepared yesterday evening – four for Luffy and two for himself. Ace put his bento in his bag and waited for his brother, who, as always, couldn't find his bag.

"Have you checked under the bed?" Ace yelled to Luffy, slowly walking to the door.

"Yes!"

"Then check the living room! Your bento is in the kitchen, don't eat it!" Ace put on his shoes and waited for Luffy, so he could lock the door – his brother's empty head didn't have enough memory to remember it. "Hurry up!"

"Hai!" Luffy yelled back, as he rolled down the stairs and into the living room. From there he ran to the kitchen. "Is it a pirate bento?"

"Yes, it's a pirate bento, Luffy, now move!" Ace rolled his eyes as he waited by the door. He could see the clock in the living room and it showed that they had to get out of the house in the next five minutes.

"Coming!" Luffy sprinted out of the kitchen and came to a sliding stop in front of Ace, dropped on the floor and put on his shoes quickly. "Done!" He ran out the door.

Ace smiled and locked the door and walked after Luffy to the bus stop. It was close and the bus would arrive in about seven minutes, four of them were wasted by walking to the stop. As usual, Luffy, being his cheerful and carefree self, was running in circles around Ace, needing to get the energy out of his system. Ace didn't mind it, he was used to it already and, compared to when Luffy was seven years old, he was a lot less active. The seven year old Luffy had the energy of twenty nuclear reactors and had to be exercised the whole day long. Now, he could actually sit through the lesson, instead of driving his teachers mad with his excess energy.

Personally, Ace was a low-energy type of guy, but he compensated it with enormous stamina that he trained up during his years on mount Corvo. He was better than Zoro, though – when the swordsman wasn't training, he napped wherever he could sit, which annoyed Sanji a lot. Zoro even said once that he'd like to take Ace's narcolepsy off his hands if it was possible, so that he would have a legitimate reason to take a nap in the middle of the day.

The bus came in two minutes earlier than usual and they got on. Since it was an early morning, all the sitting places were taken and there was barely enough place for Ace and Luffy to squeeze in. This was a part of the going to school which Ace hated – being squeezed and getting his feet stepped on. His narcolepsy made it impossible for him to get a driving license and just drive to school, like everyone else his age did.

The ride to school was uneventful, just as usual. Ace sighed, when he got off the bus close to school – he'd have to learn how to levitate soon, or else he us going to break every single bone in his feet. He hated girls on stilettos the most, which was why whenever he had a girlfriend, he asked her to wear normal shoes. Speaking of which, did he have a boyfriend now? Or how does that 'date for a week' thing work? Was he supposed to go on a date with sempai? He'd have to ask Nami, she dated Marco for a week, way back, before she got together with Luffy. Speak of the devil…

"Good morning," said Nami, as she caught up with them.

"Morning," said Ace. In his opinion morning could never be good, not unless you got to sleep through it.

"Hi, Nami!" Luffy hugged Nami, almost strangling her.

"Luffy, get off," Nami said, without any real hostility or annoyance – it was more of a habit now. "I saw the photos yesterday, damn it, Ace, how come you're more popular than me?"

Ace shrugged, as he chuckled – the only reason Nami agreed to modelling for Sabo was because she got to earn money while she hung out with her friends. Plus the fact that they got to keep the clothes Criminal sent them for photo-shoots.

"Maybe because I have more experience in the field?" he said, doubtfully. Ace and Luffy were Sabo's first models, he was taking pictures of them way before Criminal noticed him and even before he got a decent camera. Now, the three of them, unlike before, knew exactly what they were doing in front or behind the camera.

"Not fair!" Nami pouted, but laughed in a second, unable to keep the pout on her face. "I should charge you for spending time with a person as famous as me."

"I think time with Firefish is worth more than with Cat Burglar, so in the end, you'd be paying me," Ace smiled – he was about the only one, beside Robin, who could get out of giving money to Nami. She tried to charge him for taking care of his things during his sleep attacks, but Ace miraculously managed to get out of it by saying that he should charge her for introducing her to Sabo.

"Damn it!" Nami muttered.

Luffy ran off to his classroom already and Ace and Nami were walking leisurely to their classroom, taking their time.

"I heard you got out of the advanced math," Nami noted.

"Yeah, thanks to Aokiji," Ace sighed at the memory of all the horrible hours he spent in that class.

"Congratulations," she mockingly ruffled Ace's hair.

"Thanks," Ace swatted the hand away and tried to comb his hair with his fingers, but all it did was making everything worse. He looked as if there was hurricane outside.

"Come here," Nami sighed in exasperation, as she took out her hair brush and used it on Ace. "Much better. Oh, good morning, sempai."

Ace turned around and saw Marco standing there. Apparently he wanted to go past them, but they blocked the stairs.

"Morning," Ace said warily. Sempai looked like he didn't get any sleep at all and Ace knew, that people who got very little sleep snap easily, so around those people Ace followed Cesar Millan's advice – 'no touch, no talk, no eye contact'. Of course, Cesar meant dogs, but Ace found that it worked perfectly on cranky humans as well. Sometimes, like today, he needed to be polite in order to avoid trouble. He moved away from Nami, making way for Marco, who nodded at them and walked up the stairs.

.

(^_^)

Marco's morning was horrible. He barely got two hours of sleep at night because of certain someone. Of course, he was the one to blame – nobody asked him to look at those photos, but one in particular was burned into his brain. It was a summer picture, people having fun in a swimming pool. In the background, at least. In front there was Ace, getting out of the pool. There were normal stairs there, which mean that Ace's hands were free to do whatever they wanted and they were swiping the wet black hair away from the face, giving a better view of Ace's trained torso. His red swimming shorts hung low on his hips, hugging everything perfectly, but Marco didn't get to see anything, because the picture cut in the most interesting place. Ace was hunched forward a little and looked at the camera with the expression that made Marco hard – the eyes, the little smirk, the freckles – everything said 'I know I'm hot and I know you want me, but you ain't gonna get any'.

Marco couldn't get that picture out of his head – when he closed his eyes, he could recall it with disturbing clarity, everything from the placement of the freckles on the face to every single droplet of water on that mouth-watering body. It resulted in him tossing and turning for most of the night and when he did get a little of sleep, Ace was present there and in the end Marco gave up on sleeping. That was around five o'clock in the morning.

Now he was barely dragging his feet up the flight of stairs in the school, silently thanking God for not having practice later today. Marco just followed the stairs up, holding the handrail just in case. He had to stop, because somebody blocked the stairs. Marco looked up, ready to snap at whoever it was, only to see Ace getting his hair fixed by the red-head, number three on the 'Most Wanted' list.

"Much better," she said, when she was satisfied with her work. "Oh, good morning, sempai," she said; Marco couldn't help but notice how close her and Ace's bodies were.

Ace turned around, his face expressed surprise when he saw Marco. 'Of course he'd look surprised, it's not like he'd have that smirk on all the time and it's not like he lost any sleep at night over a picture,' Marco reminded himself, as he stared at the boy in front of him. He was sure that if Ace had to, he could make school uniform look sexy as hell. On the other hand, there were a lot of old pervs who liked them young and in school uniform… Marco felt like he was turning into one of them, when his imagination made Ace to take the same pose as in that picture, only this time he wore his school uniform. 'Stop thinking!' Marco yelled at himself, as he kept staring at Ace.

"Morning," the boy in front of him said awkwardly, as he moved away from the red-head.

'Of course he feels awkward, you've been staring at him for who knows how long!' Marco's inner self smacked him on the head. 'Just walk away, walk away.'

Marco nodded to them in reply and walked past them, concentrating on his breathing, instead of Ace. He had to concentrate on ANYTHING but Ace. Anything, anything but that picture… Marco felt like banging his head against a wall in hope of gaining some control of his thoughts.

'What's wrong with you?' Marco's inner self said, angrily. 'You weren't even aware of his existence yesterday morning.'

Blissful time that was, Marco sighed. He didn't lose any sleep over incredibly hot people and he didn't get a boner every time he saw them and he had such perfect and blissful life… No, life just had to send him to the dentist so that he'd get run over by that same person and spend the rest of his life thinking about screwing him, because there's no way in hell that'll happen for real.

"Somebody, just kill me…" Marco muttered, as he walked into his classroom and collapsed on his chair.

"Somebody's optimistic today," Robin turned around in her chair, as she sat in front of Marco.

"You kidding?" he glared at her, opening one eye. Marco didn't even notice when he closed his eyes.

"No, I'm sarcastic. Will you elaborate?"

"Do you need me to?"

"I guess not, I just want to confirm my guess," Robin smiled pleasantly. "Do you mind if I do the talking?"

Marco waved his hand, telling her to go ahead. He really didn't care anymore.

"Can you open your eyes for a second?" she asked.

Marco raised his eyebrows curiously, but obeyed. Next moment he wished he didn't. Robin held her phone out for him to see. There was another picture of Ace, leaning back on a railing outside and wearing nothing but boots, black shorts and an orange hat. Marco didn't look more at the picture, he just closed his eyes and tried to relax. 'Breathe in, breathe out,' his inner self said calmingly, but Marco was far from being calm. Somebody up high had some kind of personal vendetta against him, it was the only way he could explain everything.

"Thank you," Robin said as if she was checking something on a list.

Marco just sighed. Robin was really merciless in her pursuit of knowledge. She'd stop at nothing to get the information she wanted, despite whatever collateral damage her pursuit would cause. Knowledge was above everything. That's what Marco hated right now. He wanted to see that photo again. Badly. He wanted to see every single detail, but he couldn't. It wouldn't do him any good, he knew that. Still, he wanted to have a closer look at the photo, preferably a live recreation he could touch and get to know. Hm, maybe he should ask Ace… 'BAD IDEA!' Marco's inner self yelled immediately. It was probably right, Marco wasn't sure he'd be able to resist that in any way.

The bell rung and Marco opened his eyes, reaching for his bag. He had a feeling that today was going to be one very long day, and the schedule didn't help – he had a very boring day today according to it. He knew what he'd do the first thing after the lesson – go to the cafeteria and get himself some coffee to get him through the morning.

.

(^_^)

Ace was happy. Happy as a clam. Everything was perfect in his little world right now. Namely, he was in his math class and it was a regular one and the teacher was nice and he understood everything and he was happy. Finally, finally math made sense to him. Of course, there were some bad sides to it, like Nami and Law still being in the advanced class, but he could live with that, he didn't need anything to be explained to him ten times before he got a smallest clue as to what the hell he was supposed to do. There were actual numbers in his text book, not some form of elfish he couldn't read. He smiled at the memory of the picture on the internet – he could relate to it. Ace really missed the feeling of being able to understand what the teacher was talking about. He was happy. Everything was perfect… Until he faceplanted on the desk thanks to his narcolepsy.

The lesson was still going on when he came around, nobody as much as looked at him, they were all used to it. Except for the teacher, apparently, who was slightly paler than what she was before Ace blacked out. Since everyone was working in their textbooks, she came over to him and asked:

"Are you alright?"

Ace felt sorry for her, she looked really scared.

"Yeah, I'm completely fine, it happens all the time," he smiled apologetically – he was starting to like this teacher and scaring her like that wasn't high on his list of priorities.

"So I've heard. Are you sure you are fine? You don't need to go to the nurse?"

"I'm fine, don't worry," Ace chuckled, it was always funny to see the reactions he got from the new teachers when his narcolepsy decided to say hi. The horrified expression on their faces never got old.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Tell me, if you feel weird or anything."

"I will, don't worry," although the convincing part was getting annoying.

The rest of the lesson was uneventful, so after it Ace took his wallet and went to cafeteria – his next lesson was chemistry lab, so he didn't want to end up with his face in hydrochloric acid. Thus he needed a supply of coffee, strong enough to keep him wide awake during the whole lab. Even if he wasn't trusted with chemicals (his lab partners always handled those), it's not like he did nothing – he set up the whole thing and he was good at figuring things out, so everyone wanted to have him as their partner.

Ace rolled down the stairs and skipped all the way to cafeteria. He actually liked chemistry, unlike social sciences he had after the lab. If only he could, he would have made himself fall asleep for the duration of the lesson. Now, with the advanced math out of the picture, the social sciences were going to be the bane of his existence.

He was so deep in dark thoughts about the lesson, that he didn't notice an obstacle in front of him and he ran straight into it. Correction – not it, Marco-sempai.

"You have to stop popping up wherever I'm going to run," Ace laughed, sitting on the floor and looking at Marco, who was glaring at him.

"You've got to stop running in the school," Marco answered, as he got up.

"I was going to the cafeteria," Ace said, hoping that Marco wasn't too mad at him for running him down two days in a row.

"Food…" Marco rolled his eyes and started to walk in the direction of cafeteria, not waiting for Ace, so he got up quickly and caught up to sempai.

"Nope, this time it's coffee," Ace smiled widely. "I need to be awake for the lab."

"Which one?"

"Chemistry. What's your next period?"

"Physics."

"I would have liked physics if I had a different teacher, our teacher sucks…" Ace sighed – he had the same teacher in physics and advanced math. Needless to say – the guy hated Ace.

"Hm," Marco answered, as they waited in queue in the cafeteria.

"So, what do you have today, sempai?" Ace asked, because the pause was getting awkward.

"English, physics, double math and religion," sempai answered shortly.

"Eh… I kind of wish that was my schedule… I have math, double chemistry, social sciences and biology…" Ace sighed. "I really hate social sciences…"

"Hm," that was all he got out of Marco, who was now pouring coffee into a paper mug and not even sparing a glance in Ace's direction. He paid for his coffee and walked away slowly, carefully drinking the hot beverage.

Ace quickly made himself coffee, exchanged a few words with the cafeteria lady, who was complaining about Luffy, paid for his coffee and what Luffy ate (that was really the last of his money, unless Sabo transferred him his earnings from the last photo-shoot) and hurried after Marco.

Before he caught up to his sempai, though, his phone rang, so Ace stopped, as he fished it out of his pocket. Speak of the devil…

"'Sup!" Ace said cheerfully.

"Hi yourself," Sabo said on the other end. "Can you make some time for me on Friday? I got a new camera, so I need to take it for a test-drive."

"Sure, but you better give me my money or I'll starve before Friday arrives, I just spent everything I had to pay for everything Luffy ate in the cafeteria…" Ace answered; he noticed that sempai stopped and was listening to the conversation.

"I already did, last night," Sabo answered, as he chuckled. "Why doesn't Luffy pay for himself? He gets a decent check, so what's the problem?"

"Nami is the problem…" Ace sighed. "She confiscates Luffy's money and puts them on a bank account… Like, all of it… He never sees any money and I'm stuck paying for everything…"

"Are you trying to make me give you a raise?"

"Will you?" Ace laughed.

"I might, if you'll get me a new model," Sabo answered, laughing as well.

Ace's eyes immediately went to sempai, looking at him with his professional eyes. With some practice, he could surely be a good one, Ace finally decided.

"Hey, you still there?"

"Ah, yes… Rejoice, I have someone in mind, I'll make sure he's available on Friday," Ace said, still evaluating Marco critically.

"He? You don't have a female? We've got enough males as it is…"

"If, after Friday, you'll think he's no good, then I'll look for a girl," Ace smiled mischievously.

"Is that so? He better be good," Sabo said. "Ok, got to go, I'll pick you up on Friday."

"Bye," Ace pressed the red button and turned to sempai with a wicked smile on his lips. "Seempai, are you free on Friday?" Ace said, dragging out the 'e'.

"Why?" Marco said, eyeing him suspiciously.

"I just need you to do me a favor and meet up with me on Friday after classes."

"Why?"

"Come on, sempai. Count it as hanging out with friends," Ace said. "It's a deal. Now I have to run, I need to get my books, see you around sempai," he looked at the clock on the wall and went to his classroom, leaving Marco staring in confusion.

The lab was pretty uneventful, Ace was teamed up with Law and they were a good combo. After the lab they had lunch, but Ace found that one of his lunchboxes was missing. He sighed, already knowing the culprit, and ate his lunch quickly. Through the social studies Ace found himself thinking about one thing – Marco-sempai said he owed him an all-you-can-eat buffet. After fantasizing for an entire lesson, Ace finally decided – he'll have that buffet today, if sempai agrees. Thus, after the lesson, he took out his phone and sent Marco sms:

'**Remember you said you owed me a buffet? I'd like to collect :D**'

Soon the answer came:

'**Today?'**

'**Yeah, my lunch was stolen, so… XD**'

'**Someone stole your lunch? O_o**'

'**And I even know who :D'**

'**Fine by me, I'll meet you at the school gate after lessons**'

'**Thanks a lot! You are a savior! XD**'

Ace smiled at his phone, now he should keep this quiet and the words 'an all-you-can-eat buffet' won't reach Luffy's bat ears. When it came to food, Luffy could hear people whispering about it two classrooms away. If he ever found out about it, Ace's date with Marco-sempai could be flushed down the toilet. 'Wait, a date?' Ace straightened, as he was almost lying in his chair, waiting for biology to start.

If you looked at it from that kind of angle, it certainly was. As a matter of fact, Ace was actually dating sempai this week, so it could count as a date. If it was indeed a date (and it was Ace who asked sempai out) he had to think it through, like maybe going somewhere after the buffet… He'd have to mind his manners, when he ate too… Suddenly Ace felt he didn't want that buffet. He'll screw everything up, Marco already thinks he's a food-crazed idiot… 'Wait, why am I worried?' Ace frowned. Why did he even care what Marco thought of him? He'll dump Ace in the end of the week anyway.

* * *

**Ok, so a short note. Chapter five will be published as soon as I finish writing chapter six. I found that it helps me to keep writing. This time I won't promise an update time, but lets hope that it will happen within two next weeks. Honestly, the only reason I published this story was because I already started on chapter four. **

**Anyways, thanks a lot for all the reviews and favourites and follows, they make me really happy.**

**I hope to see you soon,**

**Rhe.**


	5. Tuesday (Part 2)

**Happy Easter!**

**In the winds of the holiday, I decided to add a bit of my Marco/Ace trivia. Their official song, in my opinion, is Die Young by Ke$ha :D **

**Beta'ed by aqua-empress, the most efficient beta I've ever met. It's like she sits there 24/7, waiting for the next chapter to arrive XD Thanks a lot, hon!**

**Disclaimer: no, not mine... and I doubt that it will ever be.**

* * *

**.**

Whoever lived up in heaven hated Marco. Hated him enough to take his brain, throw it out and replace it by a useless piece of crap. At least, that was what Marco was thinking, as he resisted banging his head against his desk – it could result in even more brain damage than he already had. Why the hell did he agree to go out with Ace today after school when he was a) tired, b) brainless and c) got aroused every time he saw his kouhai, was a question of the day. Hell, maybe even a question of the year, given that there were only a couple months left of it and that Marco doubted that he'd be in as much trouble as he was now.

After some thinking, Marco corrected himself – he wasn't brainless, he was brain-dead. He had a good brain before, so he could only assume that all his brain cells decided to commit suicide sometime yesterday. Or, rather, the rational ones, which was the majority. The ones left were complete idiots and good-for-nothings.

Marco sighed loudly and stared at his religion teacher. Not a thing of what the teacher said made it to the part of the brain which stored everything important. Fortunately, whatever brain cells he had left, had enough sense in them to at least fake his usual expression (even though it was always bored, now he had to concentrate to not to look extra bored, because there was a huge difference).

But really, what was he thinking yesterday, promising Ace an all-you-can-eat buffet? He wasn't bothered by the economic aspects of it – it was, after all, an all-you-can-eat buffet, he was afraid (yes, Marco could admit that he was afraid!) of the social aspects of it. Meaning, he'll have to spend time with Ace and appear friendly and nice, while he would probably undress his kouhai in his mind. It won't be hard to do – he remembered every damn detail because of that photo…

Marco sighed and stared out the window. His execution was nearing – the bell would ring in twenty minutes. Maybe he could ask Robin to kill him, she'd agree out of pure curiosity. Although that way he'd be in for one slow and painful death… Still, he'd be spared the humiliation, so he had twenty minutes to decide. Death and torture or just torture… At least he'd be dead after Robin was done with him and he was sure that she won't get in trouble for killing him… If he chose the option number two, namely going out with Ace, he'd be tortured for the whole week. That was six days, including today. Robin wouldn't torture him for six days, right? Maybe a day or two and then just kill him, right? Yup, option Robin it was.

Maybe he could just cancel it, say that something came up and just walk away as fast as he could? Immediately, Pops' face appeared in Marco's mind and no, Pops didn't raise cowards. Marco sighed again. He got himself into this mess, so he should get out of it by himself. Thus, when, in fifteen minutes, the lesson would end, he'd go out and get it over with.

Marco kept staring at the clock as it ticked away the minutes. Normally, he'd be happy to finish early and there was no practice today, so he would have time to, as he once put it, play amoeba. Playing amoeba meant that he would lie on the couch as a boneless heap with minimum brain activity. Although that only happened when he escaped school before those he dated decided to take him out. That was it – if he ever survived this week, he would stop dating altogether.

Staring at the clock didn't help much – it even felt like that damn clock picked up the pace and, before Marco knew it, the bell rung, signaling the end of the lesson and the school day for some. He started to gather his things slowly, in hope to postpone his torture.

"Best of luck," Robin said with a smile, as she watched Marco shuffle his things.

Marco just glared at her, grabbing his bag and walking out of the classroom. Robin had a club practice today, otherwise (Marco was dead sure of it) she'd walk him to the gate and make fun of him. She'd probably say something in front of Ace just to embarrass Marco too. Or both of them. Marco could clearly imagine Robin saying 'Have fun boys, just remember to use protection!' He didn't know about Ace, but Marco was dead sure that if she said that, he wouldn't be able to keep himself from blushing.

Marco made a detour to the bathroom just to drag out the time. He was there for about ten minutes, eight of which he spent staring at himself in the mirror and wondering if he committed suicide here, would he haunt the school like in the urban legends. He knew for the fact that the cooking club thought themselves haunted, because food disappeared suddenly, but he was sure that there was some other explanation to it.

When Marco walked out of the school, he saw Ace waiting for him at the gate. He sighed again and walked over there. Just outside the gate were several girls, discussing something. Whatever it was, it had Ace shaking with silent laughter.

"What's up?" Marco asked, curious.

Ace just waved his hand, motioning Marco to follow him. Once they were far enough, the boy burst out laughing.

"What's this all about?" Marco asked again.

"They were from the cooking club… and they discussed how yesterday the food disappeared right in front of them…" Ace choked out between the laughs.

"I take it you know where it went," Marco couldn't keep from smiling.

"Yeah… I do… It went the same way my lunch went today…" Ace laughed.

"And?"

"Luffy should really be a ninja in the future…" Ace finally could straighten himself, although he still chuckled.

"You mean, your brother is the ghost that's haunting the cooking club?" Marco laughed out loud.

"I can't believe Sanji haven't caught him yet…" Ace laughed.

"He stole food from Sanji?" Marco was impressed – not everyone could do something like that.

"Only because Luffy uses Nami as a distraction," Ace explained. Nami went with it because that way she didn't have to spend money on feeding Luffy.

"Damn… That's… clever!" Marco had to give it to Ace's brother – he was smarter than he looked.

"I know," Ace chuckled. "So, where are we going?"

"Somewhere central," Marco answered – he had no idea, which restaurants had an all-you-can-eat buffet, but he figured that they could just look for something interesting.

"Ah, so you have no idea?" Ace raised his eyebrows.

"No."

"Well, lucky for you, I have. If you don't mind pizza, that is," Ace looked at Marco, questioning.

Marco remembered ten pizza cartons and shrugged – if Ace wanted, he could have his beloved pizza, Marco wasn't picky when it came to food.

"Good, I know this place, they have a pizza buffet and it's not expensive either," Ace smiled. "Plus that's about the only good pizzeria in the city, at least in my opinion."

"Is it the same place you ordered from yesterday?" Marco asked just in case.

"Yeah, it's not far from here either."

Marco nodded, motioning for Ace to lead the way. As it turned out, it wasn't all that hard to be around Ace. It was a bit like thinking about the elephant – you tell yourself to not to think about it, but you still do, but when it's in front of you – you can look at it, you don't need to think. The elephant in this case walked slightly ahead, leading the way. After a minute, the elephant decided to break the silence.

"Hey, sempai, why did you chose judo?"

"There wasn't anything else to choose from," Marco shrugged. "What about you?"

"Because no matter how big and strong they are, I will defeat them," Ace answered, not looking at Marco.

"They?"

When Ace didn't answer, Marco remembered what Pops told him yesterday, about the Grey Terminal. It made sense that Ace wanted to learn to fight properly. Especially if there were real thugs around. It was surprising that if Ace grew up at the Grey Terminal, he could function so well among the people at Enies Lobby. Speaking of which.

"Why didn't you go to Mariejois?" he asked.

"You saw that, didn't you?" Ace chuckled. "Then you know the answer."

"Really? Just for an extra hour of sleep in the morning?" Marco frowned.

"Yup, just an extra hour of sleep," Ace turned his head and looked Marco in the eyes. "It's one hell of a difference."

"If I had the choice, I would have chosen Mariejois," Marco glared back at Ace, the anger from yesterday came back, so the words came out harsher then they should have.

"Me too, if I had the choice," Ace laughed. "However, my doctor had a completely different idea."

Marco's frown deepened. He didn't quite understand, it felt like he was missing something important.

"Basically, if I went to Mariejois, the amount of stress and the lack of that extra hour in the morning would have put me in the hospital, on the psych ward, if I remember correctly," Ace explained with a smile. "So yeah, I need my beauty sleep."

Marco nodded, showing that he understood. Damn Robin, for knowing everything and not telling him. Also, he was an idiot, for jumping to conclusions and assuming Ace was just a spoiled brat. Robin did tell him yesterday about Ace being sick, but he didn't remember what it was. Marco remembered, though, that it made Ace pass out randomly during the day. He should watch out for it, just in case.

"Here we are, not too far from school, right?" Marco was brought back, when Ace stopped and pointed at the pizzeria across the street. The place didn't look too big, nor did it attract much attention. After taking a closer look, Marco thought the place looked cosy and inviting. He decided that he liked it.

The inside of the place was in warm tones, with comfy sofas and nice, clean tables. There were several customers, having their late lunch. Ace went straight to one table by the window and left his bag on one of the chairs.

"Come on, sempai, here you have to pay before you start eating," Ace said, turning to Marco.

Marco shrugged and put his bag on another chair. He found his wallet and went to the cashier, who looked oddly familiar.

"No way… I thought for sure that after yesterday, you'd never want to see a pizza in your life," said the cashier to Marco.

"Hi, Usopp! Didn't know you'd be working today," Ace came over and smiled at the cashier.

"Man, that's classical conditioning, you'll get him running over you again in no time," the cashier told to Marco, frowning.

"What do you mean?" Marco blinked.

"You are encouraging him to run you over again, if you'll buy him food."

"Ah, no, this is completely unrelated, I lost a bet," Marco explained. "Plus, he already ran me over today, so I think I'm safe for now."

"Really now, Ace? Why are you so dead set on sending this poor guy to the hospital?" the cashier turned to Marco's kouhai, after giving Marco a look full of pity.

"Hey, it's not my fault sempai gets in my way when I'm in a hurry!" Ace defended himself.

Marco just rolled his eyes at that and paid for the buffet. The price was, indeed, reasonable, like Ace said.

"Just don't run this time, Ace," the cashier chuckled, giving Marco his change.

"Can't promise anything – old habits die hard," Ace laughed loudly and went to the buffet.

Marco nodded to the cashier, put his wallet into his back pocket and followed his kouhai. For a moment he just stood there, watching the comedy show called 'Ace and the buffet'. The amount of pizza on Ace's plate grew quickly, until it became a small mountain. Marco decided to ignore it, after all he had a lot of siblings and saw a lot of weird eating habits. He took a plate for himself and chose a couple of slices from different pizzas.

"What do you want to drink, sempai?" Ace asked, already empty-handed, his mountain of pizza was back at their table.

"I don't care, anything," Marco shrugged, as he went back to their table. He sat down and stared at the mountain. The topmost slice was slowly sliding down towards Marco and he stared at it with interest, waiting for it to fall. Ace came back right on time to see the slice slide down the mountain and onto Marco's plate.

"What's this, sempai? Are you stealing my food with telekinesis?" Ace asked, putting down two glasses with cola.

"No," Marco answered, still looking at the mountain – another slice was sliding down in his direction.

"Looks more like a 'yes' to me," Ace laughed, catching the slice and biting it. He sat down and looked at Marco with a smile.

"What did he mean by saying 'don't run'?" Marco asked, busying himself with his pizza – anything to not to look at his kouhai.

"Oh, that's because when I was younger, like ten or something, me, Sabo and Luffy did a lot of 'eat-and-run's," it came out somewhat muffled and Marco looked up from his plate, only to see half the mountain already gone. Marco blinked – he barely ate half his slice, there must be something wrong with his perception for sure. Nobody could eat that fast. "Luffy always left an 'Iou treasure' note."

Marco blinked again – right in front of him the mountain dissolved to nothing in a matter of seconds. He looked up at Ace, but his kouhai looked pretty normal, chewing thoughtfully.

"I'll go get seconds," Ace said, once he was done chewing.

Marco followed him with his eyes, looking completely confused. It was humanly impossible to eat so much in so little time. Just in case, Marco looked under the table and on the sofa Ace sat on, but he saw no trace of that mountain (except for the slice that escaped to his plate). Meanwhile, Ace came back with another mountain, albeit a smaller one.

"You looked confused," his kouhai said, as he sat down.

"Um…" Marco didn't know what to say. "Seconds?"

At that Ace's face became bright red.

"Y-yeah, why?" Ace said, looking anywhere but Marco.

"I'm just… I'm trying… I'm sorry, I must have seen wrong or something," Marco looked at his clock just in case, but the time was what he expected it to be, they haven't been in the pizzeria longer than ten minutes. "I'm sorry, don't mind me," Marco blinked again, shaking his head.

However, in a second, he changed his mind – he didn't see anything wrong. This mountain was dissolving as fast as the first one. Marco sat there and stared at Ace's plate, completely baffled. His mind was playing tricks on him for sure, there was no other explanation. Marco looked up at Ace, but there was nothing strange with the boy, except that his face was still flushed. 'Cute,' Marco's inner voice said and Marco nodded absently in agreement.

Ace's eyes met Marco's for a moment, as Ace took a bite of pizza. Marco's eyebrows rose, when Ace averted his gaze, his face tomato red. Marco looked down at Ace's plate, his own completely forgotten. Ace's plate was empty once again and Marco shook his head. He rubbed his eyes, just in case, but the result was the same.

"What the… I must be seeing things…" Marco muttered under his breath. Something didn't add here, he just had to figure out what. His train of thought was interrupted by laughter close by and Marco saw the cashier make his way over to them. Marco stared at him, unsure if that man knew the answer.

"I take it this is your first time," the cashier chuckled. "You look like you've seen an UFO."

"Usopp," Ace said, pleadingly, getting even redder in the face, although Marco was sure that was impossible.

"What? Did you see the look on his face? He barely touched his own food, trying to figure out where yours went," the cashier, Usopp, was smiling widely.

Marco frowned, when both Ace and Usopp looked at him, equally curious.

"I guess you haven't met Luffy, or you would have understood where the food went," Usopp said.

"Would that make a difference?" Marco asked, getting more confused by the second.

"Oh, trust me, it makes all the difference in the world. He's a black hole."

Marco looked at Ace for any kind of confirmation and Ace nodded, his blush gradually receding.

"So?"

"Well, your food wouldn't have been untouched, if you had Luffy anywhere near you. Ace here needs to keep his shape up, or he'll starve."

"Wait a sec, you mean he," Marco pointed at Ace, "ate two mini-mountains of pizza in less than a couple of minutes?"

It was all that was needed to make Ace tomato-red again, Marco was dead sure that he could fry eggs on the boy's face, it being that red.

"More or less," Usopp said proudly.

Marco's brain short circuited again – he couldn't put such eating habits and the body he saw together. With such eating habits Ace should have been at least four times the size he was. Not that Marco complained, he liked that body a lot, he just had hard time doing the math. Ace must have had one hell of metabolism or he trained like crazy. Those were the only explanations Marco could come up with. Or both, Marco added after some thinking.

"Don't you have work to do?" Marco was brought back again, when Ace tried to shove his friend away from their table.

"I do, but this is much more fun," Usopp answered with a smile.

"Will you go away?" Ace said, still red in the face.

"That was rude!" the cashier laughed, but seeing as Ace got up to drag him away from the table, he lifted his hands in defeat and retreated back to the counter.

Marco blinked, surprised and looked at his kouhai, who was clearly uncomfortable. He wasn't going to ask why he chased away his friend, because if it was Marco… well, he would have done the same. He was lucky Robin had her practice today, or he'd be the same color as Ace.

"He was really annoying," Ace said sheepishly. "I'm not like that all the time…"

"Friends have their good and bad sides," Marco chuckled, deciding that if he spent more time on thinking about black hole called Ace, he won't have any time to eat his pizza. Thus, Marco continued to eat, as if nothing happened.

Ace nodded, drinking some of his cola. Marco decided that if Ace wanted to take another helping of pizza, he won't stare, no matter the speed it will disappear with. However, Ace didn't go to get any more food. Marco smiled – apparently Ace would rather die than eat in front of him ever again. Of course, Marco was the one to blame, but it was the first time he ever saw somebody eat that fast.

The rest of lunch was spent in silence as Ace refused to speak and Marco was busy chewing. After Marco was done, they said goodbye to Usopp and left. Right outside the pizzeria, as if he felt it, Marco got a call from Thatch.

"Yeah?" Marco answered, thinking about everything that could possibly be wrong – Thatch never called him at this time of Tuesdays because he had classes.

"Hey, are you free now?" Thatch asked.

"It depends," Marco said, eyeing Ace and trying to figure the importance of this 'date'.

"I need you to pick Izo up from school, because I can't and Pops is stuck at some meeting… Vista and Jozu had work today, so they couldn't come."

"What happened? Why does he need picking up?" Marco frowned, dreading the answer.

"He got into a fight with some jerks who didn't like his style. He won, of course, but he got suspended for three days, including today," Thatch explained.

"Why didn't you call me right away?"

"I got a text from Robin saying that you were busy, so I tried them first."

"How the fuck did she get your number?" Marco went cold.

"No idea, but, apparently, Pops, Vista and Jozu got the same message, so I'd guess she has all our numbers…"

"How did that happen?!"

"Like I said – no idea. So, are you free enough?"

"Yeah, I'll pick him up," Marco sighed.

"Your friend is scary."

"Tell me about it…"

"I have to run, see you later."

Marco just hung up on Thatch without responding. Robin was scary. Or, rather, her ability to acquire all sorts of information was scary.

"I take it you have to run," Ace said, tilting his head to the side.

"Yeah, I need to pick my brother up from school because he got suspended and I'm the only one available."

"No worries, I totally get it," Ace laughed.

"Does your brother gets in trouble often?" Marco raised his eyebrows.

"You have no idea," Ace laughed loudly.

"I'm sorry I have to run," Marco felt he needed to apologize – most of his dates got angry when he had a family emergency like that.

"What are you talking about? Shoo! Go get your brother before he gets into more trouble!" Ace waved his hands in dismissive manner. "If it was me, I'd be running right about now," he said, because Marco just stood there and stared at Ace in shock. It was a first for him – not only his date didn't get angry, but urged him to get going.

"Right, see ya!" Marco finally nodded and turned away.

"See you tomorrow!" Marco turned his head a bit to see Ace standing there and waving him goodbye with a smile. He raised his own hand and waved.

(^_^)

.

Later that evening Ace was sitting on his bed with his laptop and watched series with facebook open. For the lack of anything better to watch, he was watching some of the newer episodes of The Simpsons. Ace had to give it to the scenarists – after twenty plus seasons the show didn't get boring. Ace's favorite was Grandpa, he was just too hilarious.

Between the episodes Ace checked facebook, but there wasn't much going on there. At least, that was true twenty minutes ago. Now, Ace stared at it with wide eyes and slacked jaw in complete horror. Making a complete fool out of him apparently wasn't enough, someone upstairs just had to completely destroy Wednesday morning too. There was a simple update from Marco – '**Got a call from coach, we move tomorrow's practice from afternoon to morning. If I don't see you tomorrow at six, consider yourself dead.'**

Ace fumbled after his phone and looked for Marco among his contacts. Sending a message took way too long time, so Ace called instead. It took only four signals for Marco to answer.

"Sempai, what is the meaning of this?!" Ace didn't care about the fact that he raised his voice, he was too angry.

"Ace? What do you want?" sempai sounded confused.

"What do you mean what do I want?! What the fuck? What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Unless you have a good reason to speak to me in that tone, I'm going to slaughter you tomorrow."

"That's what I'm talking about! What the fuck!"

There was a silence on the other end for a minute, giving Ace enough time to come to his senses and wish for a quick and painless death. He just yelled and swore at Marco-sempai, he will die tomorrow for sure.

"I see…" sempai finally said. "Sorry about that, but there is nothing I can do, the coach moved the practice," there was some more silence, because Ace was still mentally writing his will and didn't dare to breathe. "Do you have a hard time waking up or staying awake in the morning?" Marco asked.

After a minute Ace understood that he was supposed to say something, but he couldn't remember what sempai said because he was too busy writing his will.

"Um… Can you repeat what you said?" Ace dared to ask only because if he hung up, he'd be dead for sure.

Sempai repeated his words; oddly enough he didn't sound angry, just concerned.

"Both, actually," Ace answered. "Luffy normally wakes me, because I sleep through my alarm…"

"How about I pick you up tomorrow morning? Just in case," sempai suggested.

Had Ace eaten something at that moment, he would have choked.

"I'm sorry?"

"I asked, if I should pick you up in the morning, just in case."

"Um… That would be great, but I don't want to inconvenience you."

"The only way you can inconvenience me is by not showing up for practice. That way I'd have to kick your ass when it's not even your fault, so give me an address."

Ace, still in shock, just rambled his address out without thinking.

"Good, I'll be at your house quarter to five. Go to sleep now."

"S-sure…"

Ace didn't get to say anything else, because sempai hung up. He stared at the ceiling, amazed. Not only did he get away with yelling and swearing at sempai, he also got an alarm to wake him up for sure. He just forgot to ask what the catch was.

(^_^)

.

In the Newgate household Marco retreated to the bathroom and locked the door with record speed. He would have loved to talk to Ace some more, but Thatch just had to walk in when he set the time. Of course that buffoon had to raise a ruckus and get Marco chased to the bathroom, in order to hide from his overly curious brothers. His only hope was that Pops would chase them away and let Marco go to bed early.

* * *

**I'm grateful for all the reviews, favourites and follows. I'll try to answer the reviews from now on, because I suck at that.**

**Hope to see you soon.**

**Rhe.**

**PS. Won't be as soon as one could hope, I have an exam on Thursday next week. Plus I have to finish next chapter too, it turned out that a lazy person is always a lazy person despite the circumstances. Not that I didn't know that...**


	6. Wednesday (Part 1)

**Sup!**

**I decided that I'll add a 'song of the chapter' basically because I want to. This chapter's song is _The Whole World Is Watching_ by Within Temptation. **

**Beta'ed by aqua-empress, despite all odds. Giant thank you to you, dear ^_^**

**Disclaimer: not mine and won't ever be... Dang it, I don't even own the initial plot... :(**

* * *

Wednesday morning didn't turn out the way Ace expected it to turn out. First and foremost, he underestimated his ability to sleep through anything. Second thing he underestimated was Luffy. Ace honestly didn't expect his brother to use him as a trampoline to wake him up. Third thing was also Luffy. The mysterious processes in his brother's head will forever be unexplored, because Ace couldn't fathom why the hell did Luffy bring sempai to Ace's room and allowed him to watch a show called 'Wake Ace Up In The Morning'.

When Ace finally managed to throw his brother off of the bed, it was already too late to do anything which could save his name. Or, rather, nothing he would ever do from now on will ever restore it. To say that noticing Marco-sempai by the door was embarrassing was to say nothing. Compared to this yesterday's fiasco at the pizzeria was small and insignificant.

"S-sempai…" Ace stammered, beet-red in the face.

"Morning," said Marco casually. "We don't have much time, so get dressed. I'll wait for you downstairs."

Wide awake for the first time in his life, Ace quickly got out of the bed and rushed around, putting his clothes on. Ace was lucky he prepared everything in the evening, so his bags were already packed and his uniform was ready to wear. All in all Ace managed get himself ready in about five minutes, which was a first for him, but considering the circumstances Ace really wished it wasn't.

He ran down the stairs, dumped his bags in front of the door, and went to the kitchen. True enough, there was Marco-sempai, sitting on a chair and eyeing the coffee Luffy made with interest. Luffy himself was nowhere to be seen, but, judging by the sounds upstairs, Ace could determine that he couldn't find his bag again.

"Did you eat breakfast, sempai?" Ace asked, opening the fridge.

"No," Marco replied simply, studying the fridge intently.

Ace took a step back and examined the fridge but he didn't see anything wrong with it, nor did he see anything dirty on it, so he just shrugged and went for the freezer. There he had pancakes he froze just for such an occasion, namely when he didn't have the time to make breakfast. Now all he had to do was to heat them up in a microwave and they were good to go. He just needed to check something.

"Do you eat pancakes, sempai? They are homemade, not from the shop, I just stored them for when I don't have the time to make breakfast," Ace explained, getting the container out of the freezer.

"Sure thing," Marco answered, still examining the fridge. "Say, why do you have a lock on your fridge?"

"That is to keep the food safe from Luffy," Ace answered getting the plates ready.

"Are you starving your brother?"

That brought a wave of uncontrollable laughter over Ace. Starve Luffy? Was that even possible?

"Ace! Where's my bag?" Luffy yelled from upstairs.

"Have you checked under the bed?" Ace yelled back, dividing pancakes between two plates.

"It's not there!" Luffy informed after a moment.

"Did you look in the living room?"

"Not yet!"

The whole house seemed to shake, as Luffy rolled down the stairs, sounding like a herd of elephants. Something crashed in the living room (Ace suspected that Luffy stumbled over something and fell) and then he yelled:

"It's not here either!"

"Sempai, can you please look under the table? Can you see a bag there?" Ace asked, putting the first portion of pancaked in the micro.

"Yeah, it's here," Marco said, after checking under the table.

"Luffy, it's here!"

"Haaaaai!"

While the first portion was heating up, Ace took out some jam and syrup to eat with pancakes, orange juice, milk and some meat to keep Luffy at bay. Container with meat got an odd look from sempai, but he said nothing, so Ace continued preparing breakfast. He poured a cup of coffee for himself and sempai, leaving place for milk, in case sempai didn't drink it black. Ace also took out sugar, because he would need it anyway, and three glasses for the orange juice. Luffy trotted into the kitchen at the same time as he put coffee in front of sempai, earning a happy 'thank you'.

"Ace, breakfast!" Luffy exclaimed excitedly.

Ace turned around and saw Luffy sit right by Marco's side. Fortunately, he knew exactly what that meant.

"Luffy, move away from sempai," Ace said strictly.

"It's okay, I don't mind," Marco said, waving his hand dismissingly.

"This is for your own good," Ace assured. "Luffy, move away and sit over there," he pointed to a chair as far away from sempai as possible.

"Eeeh? But he's okay with it!" Luffy whined.

"I don't think it's needed," Marco said at the same time.

"Luffy, sempai is not going to share his food with you, so move away and sit over there," Ace pointed to the far away chair again.

"You're not going to share with me?" Luffy looked at Marco as if he, at the very least, admitted of murdering his beloved grandma.

"No, he's not, so go sit over there. If I see you trying to steal sempai's food, you won't get any meat today."

"Not fair!" Luffy whined, but moved away to sit where Ace wanted him to sit.

The first portion of pancakes was ready, so Ace took it out and put in front of Marco, telling Luffy to get the cutlery. Ace turned away for a moment to put Luffy's portion in the microwave and when he turned around again, to keep an eye on Luffy, he barely made it.

"Luffy, meat!"

Luffy's head jerked up at the same time as his hand retreated from sempai's plate. Sempai was naïvely pouring some juice for them. Luffy eyed the container in Ace's hands with an attention of a german shepherd.

"Go sit over there, Luffy," Ace pointed where again, this time a bit of fried meat in his hand.

Luffy did what he was told to do obediently, eyes trained on the meat in Ace's hand. Ace suddenly felt very awkward – his friends knew Luffy well enough to know that this was needed, if there were guests, but they were also good at protecting their own food. Marco-sempai was a completely new person to their family dynamics and Ace didn't even want to imagine how all this looked to him.

Ace snapped back to reality and noticed that while he was spaced out he lost Luffy's attention, who was now soundlessly moving in Marco's direction.

"Luffy, catch!"

Both Luffy and Marco looked at him, surprised. Luffy jumped up and caught the meat with his mouth, as Marco stared at him – he didn't notice when the boy got so close to him.

Lucky for all three of them Luffy's pancakes were done in a second, so Ace put some meat from the container on them (Marco frowned at that) and put them where Luffy was supposed to sit. Then, moving as quickly, as he could, Ace prepared three sandwiches for himself. It took Luffy all of a thirty seconds to finish twenty pancakes and Ace was proud to have finished making his sandwiches by that time.

"Sempai, you should eat, because we have to go soon," Ace said, noticing that Marco was spacing out. "Luffy, meat!" he threw another piece of meat at Luffy, to keep him away from the easy target.

"Right," Marco said and focused on his own food.

In the end Ace had to sacrifice one and a half sandwich in order to let his sempai to eat in peace. When Luffy protested the fact that he didn't get a bento (Ace didn't have time to prepare them yesterday), Ace had to drag his brother out of the kitchen, telling him to get one at Nami's. They made an arrangement yesterday – since Ace didn't trust Luffy to lock the house, they had to go out at the same time. Thus Luffy was supposed to go to Nami and walk with her to school later.

When they finally got out of the house, Ace could finally exhale. Luffy wasn't a difficult person normally, but today, for whatever reason, he decided to argue and Ace was now sporting a headache. Explaining things to Luffy was one of his least favourite things to do. He loved his brother, he really did, but Ace wasn't blessed with the divine patience Sabo possessed.

"I am so sorry about all this," Ace said tiredly, when he and Marco were on the bus stop; Luffy didn't need to take the bus to get to Nami, so he separated from them right after they left the house.

"It's alright, I kind of forced myself on you two," sempai said with a small smile. "Do you live by yourselves?"

"Most of the time – yeah, gramps spends all the time at his marine base and only comes here on big holidays or when he gets a call from school. Because he's absent a lot, he arranged Makino to come a couple times a week to clean and do some chores," Ace replied, rubbing his temple – the headache was receding slowly with a lack of the stimulus, namely Luffy.

Sempai just hummed, showing that he understood. They waited for the bus in silence, Ace was busy marvelling about the fact that this was the first time in his life that he got up and wasn't sleepy at all. Although he suspected that the reason for that was Marco-sempai. Ace fought the urge to face-palm, or just curl under the bench and die from embarrassment. If he counted the things he did since Monday, it was a miracle that sempai didn't run away when he spotted him. Firstly, Ace run sempai over and didn't even apologise properly. Secondly, there was that thing at the dojo, when he completely lost control and attacked sempai. Thirdly, he run sempai over (AGAIN!) on Tuesday and he was lucky that he didn't carry a cup of coffee. Fourthly, there was his epic failure at the pizzeria – was it so difficult to keep his manners and eat like normal human being? No, it wasn't and Ace knew that he could do that on special occasions, but yesterday he didn't seem to think about such a minor thing. And, finally, this morning. Why he was so dead set on humiliating himself in front of sempai was something Ace could not fathom.

The bus pulled over and Ace surfaced from all his dark thoughts that threatened to drown him. His challenge of the day would be to not to humiliate himself even more than he already did. Although, somehow, he didn't believe that he would be able to do that – hell, he'll probably run into sempai after the first lesson on his way to cafeteria for coffee.

Ace walked into the bus, which was almost empty. 'Right, who'd actually go somewhere at 5:40…' Ace thought, taking a place by the window. Sempai took one behind him, because Ace was an idiot. He immediately wanted to bang his head against the seat in front of him – by force of habit he put his bags on the sit next to him and now it was already too late to take them away.

Suddenly Ace felt a familiar shiver and his last thought before he passed out was 'Out of all places it just had to be the bus…' When he came around, he wasn't on the bus anymore. He was sitting at the bus stop by the school. Right in front of him was Marco-sempai, who looked thoughtful, as he calculated something in his mind. Sempai's gaze wandered between Ace, his bags and Sempai's own bags, apparently trying to figure out how to transport everything to school without looking like a packing mule.

"Good, you're awake," sempai noted, smiling.

"I'm sorry," Ace muttered, rubbing his face. What the hell happened to 'don't humiliate yourself anymore'?

"You don't need to apologise, it's not like it was your fault," sempai said kindly.

Ace looked at him with suspicion. This was awfully kind, coming from Marco-sempai. Normally he was blunt and much less forgiving. Then Ace blinked and realised – they were supposed to be dating this week. It explained a lot – like, for example, why sempai was so nice and forgiving. When people dated, they often closed their eyes on whatever faults their partners were showing. Like, for example, falling asleep on the bus or running them over two days in a row.

.

(^_^)

.

Marco woke up at what could only be called a 'butt-crack of dawn'. It was still dark outside and the clock showed 3:50 in the morning. What the fuck was wrong with his alarm? He turned on the lamp he had by his bed and noticed something written on his hand. After a closer look and some blinking, Marco could finally read 'wake Ace up 4:45'.

"Fuck damn it…" Marco groaned and sighed.

It took about twenty minutes to get to Ace's by foot – there were no buses at this time of the day. All the normal people were in their beds, sleeping soundly. Marco didn't even think about breakfast – there was no way he'd force something down his throat this early in the morning.

Yesterday, for some reason, he thought that picking Ace up would be a great idea. He seriously doubted that now. It was a terrible idea. Still, he had to do that, because the coach moved the practice and, as a captain, Marco had to be sure that no one was skipping training. Suddenly he had this idea about calling coach and telling him to pick Ace up instead of Marco. That way he'd be able to sleep another hour.

Marco sighed and dragged himself out of bed, brushing all ideas about how to stay in bed away. He got himself into this mess, he'd get out of it by himself, meaning that he'd go to the bathroom and brush his teeth and get dressed and go get Ace.

It didn't take long for Marco to get ready, he had everything prepared yesterday evening, right after he managed to convince his brothers to leave him alone. Sometimes Marco hated having a family full of nosy brothers, who just had to squeeze every drop of information out of him. This time Marco managed to get away with only telling that he had to pick his kouhai up for training. Thatch, being his nosy self, wanted more information, but Pops stepped in and told them to let Marco go to bed.

Moving silently down the stairs, Marco yawned endlessly. This was way, WAY, too early for him to be awake. He tried to make as little noise as possible, but on the second floor he stepped on something small and really painful. Had the inhabitants of the house been at least five years younger, Marco would have thought it was a piece of Lego. He kicked the thing away angrily (it hurt a lot to step on it) and continued down the stairs.

On the first stair, he stepped on several of those things. Marco carefully set his other foot down, testing his hypothesis. There was a lot of those small things. Just to be sure, he bent down and picked one of them. Yup, living in a house full of nosy brothers willing to prank him, was challenging. Especially when it was four in the morning and pitch black on the stairs.

Sighing and moving slowly, Marco walked down the stairs. Every single stair was covered with a lot of Lego-pieces and Marco rolled his eyes, happy that he won't be there at quarter to six, when Pops would go to the kitchen to start the coffee. To say that Pops won't be happy was to say nothing. Marco was sure that whoever thought about pranking him will get what he deserved.

It was chilly outside, but that was to be expected. He stopped for a second, remembering the way he looked up yesterday, turned in the needed direction and started walking. Marco shivered and picked up his pace in hope that he'd warm up in a couple of minutes.

All in all, Marco knew the way, he's been in that neighbourhood before, he just didn't know that Ace lived there. Ace's house was in the nicer part of the East Blue district called Foosha Village. Houses there cost a lot compared to the rest of the district, so only those who were well off lived there. Still, even Foosha Village seemed cheap compared to Sabaody. There the prices were sky-high and only few people could afford to live there. The much-discussed Mariejois High was located there. Sabaody was borderline gated community, just minus the walls. The guards were there and quite a lot of them, if you believed the papers.

Thankfully, there weren't any guards around Foosha Village, because if there were – Marco would have never gotten on the territory. Nobody would have believed that Marco was supposed to wake somebody up at this Godforsaken hour. It took him some time to find the right house since there were houses two and four and then the street ended. On the other side of the street were all the right numbers, but on the even side of the street were only numbers two and four. That was the problem, considering that he had to find the house with a number eight on it.

After five minutes of circling around, Marco decided to try to call Ace. He had to dial Ace two times, because nobody answered on the first one.

"'llo?" slurred somebody, who certainly wasn't Ace.

"Um…" Marco was lost for a moment and looked at the display, in case he called the wrong number, but Ace's name lit up on the screen. "I am supposed to pick Ace up, but I can't find the house…"

Nobody answered, but Marco heard a bang, as if somebody fell out of the bed. He heard footsteps and then he had to move the phone away from his ear, because it sounded like an earthquake. After that there were some more footsteps and a door opening. Marco waited, looking around curiously – he wanted to know what he missed. He certainly didn't expect somebody to show up from behind the bushes in the end of the road. Neither did he expect that someone to wear nothing but a pair of sleeping shorts. Literally. Not even shoes. And he certainly didn't expect that someone to come up to him and drag him in the direction of bushes without saying a word.

That someone was Ace's brother undoubtedly – Marco recognised him from both 'The Most Wanted List' and the Criminal pictures. The boy yawned non-stop as he dragged Marco to the small path hidden behind the bushes. That path led them to another street where were houses with even numbers, including the much needed number eight. Speaking of which, the door to the house was wide open, inviting all and anyone inside.

Marco allowed Ace's brother to drag him into the house, stopping for a moment by the door and allowing Marco to close the door, take off his shoes and leave his bags. Then he was dragged up the stairs, past the room with an open door (Marco saw an unmade bed and guessed it was brother's room) and into a room beside that one.

There, on a king-size bed, sprawled across it on his stomach, was Ace. Sleeping soundly. It kind of baffled Marco, since that earthquake should have woken the dead. What happened next didn't fit into Marco's understanding of the world. Personally, if somebody did that to him, he would have been dead within a couple of seconds. Ace's brother left Marco by the door, climbed up on the bed and started jumping on it, chanting 'Wake up!' Marco's eyebrow twitched, as he tried to refrain from catching the boy and throwing him out of the room. This was downright inhumane way to wake somebody up.

"Luffy, get the fuck off!" Ace finally growled and pushed his brother off of the bed. The boy laughed loudly and left the room, leaving them alone in the room. Marco honestly tried not to stare at half-naked Ace who sat on the bed, his lower half covered by blanket. "S-sempai…" Ace stammered, finally noticing Marco by the door.

"Morning," said Marco, trying to sound casual. He had to get out of this room, because the id (1) told him to forget the training and join Ace on that undoubtedly comfortable bed. "We don't have much time, so get dressed. I'll wait for you downstairs," he managed to say and decided to leave the room, before it was too late.

He went downstairs and went to the kitchen he saw on his way in. There he found Luffy, still in his pyjama shorts, preparing coffee.

"Do you always wake your brother up like that?" Marco just had to ask. Plus he needed to get his mind away from the scenarios his imagination started to create.

"Yup," the boy answered happily, starting the coffee-maker and trotting out of the kitchen.

Marco followed him with his eyes, feeling bad for poor Ace. Maybe he should have woken Ace up himself… 'No, bad idea,' Marco decided, realising that if he got on that bed, there was very slim chance of him actually leaving it. To distract himself, Marco looked around the kitchen.

The kitchen was approximately the same size as the kitchen in Whitebeard's house, not too big and not too small. Right in the middle of it was a 'working area', but judging by chairs around it, it was used as a table. Table by the window was used as dumping ground for newspapers. The cupboards were dark green colour, contrasting nicely against walls painted warm yellow, kind of like butter.

Marco took one of the chairs by the working area, hoping to force himself on some coffee, at the very least. He heard somebody run down the stairs, which actually sounded like somebody ran down the stairs and not like an earthquake. In a moment Ace walked into the kitchen hurriedly and went directly for the fridge. Marco, who didn't pay the fridge any mind before, stared at the fridge with wide eyes. Was that a lock on the fridge?

"Did you eat breakfast, sempai?" Ace asked, opening the fridge.

"No," Marco replied, completely baffled. There was a lock on the fridge! Not something simple, it was an electronic lock, which needed both password and a key. It had to be custom-made, for sure.

Noticing Marco's staring, Ace took a step back and looked at the fridge in confusion. Apparently, he didn't find anything weird, so he just shrugged and went on with whatever he was doing. Marco kept staring at the lock, trying to add two and two. There was a lock on the fridge!

"Do you eat pancakes, sempai? They are homemade, not from the shop, I just stored them for when I don't have the time to make breakfast," Ace asked, while Marco tried to make sense of the lock.

"Sure thing," he said and just had to ask. "Say, why do you have a lock on your fridge?"

"That is to keep the food safe from Luffy," Ace answered as if it was the most common thing to do – to have a lock on the fridge to not to let your younger brother get some food.

"Are you starving your brother?"

Marco could not have foreseen that kind of reaction. Was his question that funny or did he not know the named brother well enough? After some consideration Marco decided that he didn't know them enough. Meanwhile, brothers had a loud conversation about a lost bag. The way Ace sounded, he could guess that they had this conversation every single morning.

"Did you look in the living room?" Ace asked; Marco looked at the two plates with pancakes with worry – somebody wasn't going to get any. Maybe Ace did starve his brother… Or maybe it was Marco who wasn't going to get any.

"Not yet!" came a reply and Marco tensed because the earthquake started again. Or, rather, Ace's brother stomped down the stairs, sounding like a mammoth. After that came a loud crash from what seemed to be a living room and another yell:

"It's not here either!"

"Sempai, can you please look under the table? Can you see a bag there?" Ace asked and Marco turned around to look.

"Yeah, it's here," he confirmed, when he noted a bag right under the dumping ground for newspapers. While he checked, the first part of pancakes went into the microwave. Marco began to worry – somebody, most likely him, wasn't getting breakfast.

"Luffy, it's here!" Ace yelled, startling Marco.

"Haaaaai!"

While Marco was thinking, Ace took out some more stuff from the fridge. Stuff included a container labelled 'MEAT'. Did he plan to feed Marco that? Or what was meat even for? Wasn't this a breakfast? Shaking his head and deciding to let it turn out the way it was going to turn out, Marco almost missed the moment Ace placed a cup full of coffee in front of him.

"Thank you," he said genuinely, he needed some coffee badly. Marco helped himself to some sugar and considered adding milk, but forgot about it the moment Ace's brother sat down next to him. Right next to him. If he sat any closer, he would have sat in Marco's lap. One thing Marco didn't like was other people invading his personal space. He liked his bubble and Ace's brother was invading it at the moment. Marco wanted to say something, but decided against it – this wasn't his house and if Ace's brother wanted to sit next to him, he should just let the boy invade his bubble.

"Ace, breakfast!" Luffy exclaimed excitedly.

"Luffy, move away from sempai," Ace said strictly the second he saw his brother close to him.

"It's okay, I don't mind," Marco went against every cell in his body in order to say that.

"This is for your own good. Luffy, move away and sit over there," Ace pointed to a chair as far away from Marco as possible. Now Marco felt slightly offended and decided to keep the boy close to him, despite the uncomfortable feeling.

"Eeeh? But he's okay with it!" Luffy whined.

"I don't think it's needed," he said in spite of himself.

"Luffy, sempai is not going to share his food with you, so move away and sit over there," Ace pointed to the far away chair again. Marco blinked – now he was sure that someone wasn't going to get food, probably Ace's brother. This was way too confusing for him.

"You're not going to share with me?" the boy stared at Marco, looking shocked and hurt. Something was off here. He just had to figure out what.

"No, he's not, so go sit over there. If I see you trying to steal sempai's food, you won't get any meat today," Ace said with strict voice.

"Not fair!" Luffy whined, but moved and Marco instantly felt relieved. There were only a handful of people who could invade his personal bubble without him being hyper-aware of them.

The first portion of pancakes was done, so Marco felt both relieved and confused, when it ended up in front of him. Realising that he should probably help out, Marco stood up and started pouring juice in three glasses. At the same time Ace put in the second portion and commanded his brother to get the cutlery. Marco almost spilled the juice, when he heard Ace suddenly exclaim:

"Luffy, meat!"

Marco turned to look at the boy only to find him right over his plate. Marco blinked – he had no idea when Luffy got there and why he didn't hear anything.

"Go sit over there, Luffy," Ace pointed where again, this time a bit of fried meat in his hand.

Marco eyed the meat suspiciously. If it wasn't weird before, it certainly was now. Remembering how it ended when he jumped to conclusions, Marco decided to keep his face straight and look normally, until he had more information at hand.

Luffy went back to sitting far away from Marco and Marco continued pouring juice. He was lucky he already sat on his chair and didn't hold anything that could be spilled, because he was completely caught off guard when Ace exclaimed again:

"Luffy, catch!"

Marco looked at Ace in surprise and then at Luffy, who jumped up and caught a bit of meat with his mouth. Marco just stared at the boy, Ace's words about him being a ninja came to mind directly – normally he could feel when people came close to him, even if they tried to sneak up on him. The boy was scary – Marco didn't feel a thing, nothing at all. If this was a combat situation, he would not have noticed the boy until it was too late.

The microwave dinged again and Marco didn't know where to look – on Luffy, who inhaled the pancakes, or Ace, who was moving around with astounding speed. He was a bit surprised (again) by the meat on pancakes, but he was even more surprised when those pancakes went to Luffy – he eliminated the version of Ace not getting any pancakes by default, because he thought he knew his kouhai well enough when it came to food. Apparently, he didn't, because not only did he not get any pancakes, he barely got any breakfast at all. One and a half sandwiches weren't enough to survive the training on and Marco felt a bit guilty about his own content stomach. He also understood now, why Ace laughed when he asked if Ace starved brother. By the looks of if, Ace would have been the one starved if they didn't have the lock on the fridge.

After the breakfast Marco got some more information to work with - he witnessed an argument between brothers. If it was one of his own brothers who started this kind of argument, he would have kicked the shit out of them after a minute. Unlike Marco, Ace was a saint – he did his best to explain everything thoroughly to Luffy, who turned out to be unbelievably dense. After two minutes Marco changed his mind – he would not have kicked the shit out of the person who argued with him like that. He would have simply called for an ambulance and submitted himself to the psych ward. When Ace actually got through to Luffy, Marco nodded to himself – yup, Ace was definitely a saint.

* * *

(1) the id - reference to Freud's structural model of the psyche. It consists of id, ego and super-ego. Think about cartoons, when a devil and an angel popps up on a character's shoulder. Id is that devil, ego is the character and super-ego is the angel.

**Yeah... Personally, I felt that the ending was hasty and slurred, but beta said it was fine (probably because she's too nice). Anyways, you don't need to tell me about it, because I already know that. **

**Thanks a lot for reviews, favourites and follows. *bows***

**Hope to see you soon,**

**Rhe.**


	7. Wednesday (Part 2)

**Sorry for the long wait. I did write, so those who don't know it yet can check out Shallow Waters, another Marco x Ace story :)**

**Song of the chapter: Suna no Oshiro by Kanon Wakeshima. **

**Bete'ed by aqua-empress, even though she's as dead as me :) Thanks hon :)**

**Disclaimer: do I still have to put it in here? When I'll own OP I'll let the whole world know that.**

* * *

Ace didn't know what to do with himself. He just wanted to go somewhere quiet and bang his head against a wall. He was definitely an Idiot. With a capital I. Why the hell did he ever ask sempai out? Ever since Ace did that, there wasn't a day he didn't humiliate himself in front of the said sempai. Apparently the whole waking up thing, which Ace personally wanted to erase from his memory, wasn't enough. Oh, no, not even close. There was him falling asleep on the bus, an incident Ace wanted to wipe away badly, because he felt like banging his head against the nearest object every time he thought about how he got off the bus. Frankly, Ace had no idea what did he ever do to deserve such humiliation.

After the bus came the training and yes, Marco-sempai decided to spar with him again, which resulted in nothing good. Basically, he was turned into a pretzel and was questioned as to what happened to him and why didn't he fight. After the Monday, there was no way Ace would let his control go inside the dojo, which disappointed sempai to no end. Whatever you did, you didn't want to disappoint Marco-sempai. Sempai said nothing, but looked at him in a way that made him want to disappear from the face of the earth. But that wasn't all, not at all.

Grand finale came a bit later. Namely after the first lesson. There was only one thing that could happen and it just had to happen. Since he woke up early, he needed his coffee, but he had other needs too. Thus, after a quick visit to the restroom, Ace hurried to the cafeteria so that he could buy himself a cup of coffee before the next lesson. Key word here was 'hurried'. Namely ran. And it just had to happen that in that exact moment Marco-sempai was walking out of the cafeteria with a cup of coffee in his hands. Somehow, Ace wished he ran sempai over this time as well. It would not have been as embarrassing as what happened.

He noticed sempai last second. By wide eyes and sempai's posture, he could guess that this was a surprise for him as well. Ace did not run into sempai, oh no. He spun around, trying to change his trajectory, but the only thing he succeeded in was to fall like a stock. Not only did he fell, he also rolled a bit, making sempai jump over him, which resulted in sempai spilling some coffee anyway, although only on the floor.

Thankfully, sempai was a polite person, so he didn't even smile, unlike other people who got to witness his humiliation. Sempai kindly asked if he was fine and even thanked him for consideration, which didn't make Ace feel any better. Frankly, he'd sell his soul to the devil if he could turn back time and keep his stupid mouth shut on Monday. Hell, he'd agree to eternal servitude for erasing those memories from every person who got to see him humiliate himself this week.

It was only natural that at the moment Ace sat behind his desk, his arms on the deck and his face on top of them, on verge of nervous breakdown. Every time he thought that he could not embarrass himself anymore and voila – he just had to prove himself wrong. What the fuck was wrong with him?! What the hell did his mother gave him birth for? To watch her son humiliate himself in every way possible? What did he do to anger the higher powers?

Okay, that was a rhetorical question, he was an angry kid when he was small and a lot of people suffered from that, mostly poor Dadan and her gang and poor thugs at the Grey Terminal. On the other hand, they kind of started it, so he wasn't sure it should count. If anything, he was very mean to Luffy when he first met him. On the other hand, the kid was annoying as fuck, so it shouldn't count either.

After some serious thinking and calculation, Ace decided that no, he did not deserve this kind of punishment. Unless there was something super-awesome waiting to happen to him in the future and all this was sent to him to even things out. If so, he should humbly endure the hardships and wait for the good thing to happen. Finally finding a ray of sunshine among dark clouds, Ace sat up straight and sighed happily, feeling like a thousand years old sage who finally found inner peace.

"What's wrong with you?" Ace was brought back from his inner peace place by Nami, who sat down in front of him.

"Hm?" he looked at his friend with content smile on his face.

"You're starting to creep me out," Nami said with a frown. "One second you were as gloomy as Perona and the next you look as if you have a twelve course meal in front of you. You don't have borderline on top of narcolepsy, do you?"

"How did you know?" Ace laughed.

"I had my suspicions for a while, I just needed a confirmation," Nami laughed as well. "Now, jokes aside, what's up with you?"

"Nothing," Ace said, unsure if dating a male sempai should count as something wrong with him. "Just an early morning and a bad practice."

"And that thing in the corridor," Nami reminded him.

"Thank you, for bringing that up," Ace pouted. "And I just managed to erase it from my memory."

"Sorry?" Nami offered, leaning on his desk in such a way that Ace could literally hear his male classmates wish him to die a painful death. Speaking of painful deaths…

"Hey, I'm curious," Ace started, earning raised eyebrows from Nami. "You dated Marco-sempai some time ago."

"Yeah, why?"

"It's just… I kind of got on his bad side and I just want to know what kind of person is he," blatant lie. Not once did sempai get angry at him, despite everything that's happened since Monday.

"Well… What can I tell you?" Nami sighed, almost lying on top of his desk and looking out the window; Ace was sure that he just got cursed at least a hundred times. Maybe that's what's happening to him and not his 'balance of good and bad' theory. "He's… how should I put it? The best comparison would be a 'knight in shining armour'. He's warm, kind… A week-long fairy-tale." Nami gave Ace a nostalgic smile. "Still, the fairy-tales have to have an ending and it's always the same one."

"What do you mean?" he raised an eyebrow at her – so far his 'fairy-tale' was nothing but terrible.

"Well, at the end of the week he always says the same thing – 'I am sorry I couldn't fall in love with you'."

"How do you know he always says that?"

"I'm a girl and girls spend a lot of time gossiping," she looked at him as if he was stupid. "In this case – comparing experiences. It's almost identical," Nami sighed. "Another common thing was that he's never the one to initiate contact, no matter if it's just holding hands, a hug or a kiss."

"That's just wasteful." It came out before Ace could stop himself.

"One could think that, yes," Nami laughed. "Some girls were even stupid enough to try and force themselves on him."

"Where are they buried?" he laughed as well, because there was no way in hell something like that would work out with Marco-sempai.

"They are still alive, but they are afraid of having Marco anywhere near them. Heck if I know what he did to them," Nami looked at the teacher entering the classroom and, after ruffling Ace's hair (he angrily swatted her hand away, causing even more glares from his classmates), went to her seat.

Ace stared at the blackboard with a solemn expression on his face. There was a lot to think about. For example, if he ever happened to be stupid enough (which he probably was, despite his above average grades) to try to force himself on sempai… Wait, did he just admit that he could actually do that? 'That would be the peak of humiliation, if that was to happen,' he thought gloomily and shook his head – there was no way that would ever happen. Yeah, he could admit that sempai was hot, he'd have to be blind to state otherwise, but that would just be weird… Right? 'The fact that I kind of asked him out doesn't mean anything, right? I mean, we're both guys… On the other hand, why am I worried? Nami said he's not going to touch me and all I have to do is to survive the rest of the week and then I'll never ever do the same mistake again.'

Despite his somewhat optimistic thoughts, Ace could not get rid of the odd feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something was gnawing him from the inside, something he couldn't put his finger on. It wasn't hunger, he knew that sensation very well. It was more like he knew he did something bad, but no one reprimanded him for that. Like he knew it was a bad thing to do, but he still did it anyway and now his conscience was having a field day. 'But I didn't do anything!' Ace thought angrily.

(^_^)

Marco was staring his teacher down. It kind of helped that the guy was two heads shorter than him and looked like a hamster. The class was snickering at the difference in their appearances and was placing bets on who was right. Normally he would have been quiet, but he had a very, VERY bizarre morning and he didn't get enough sleep, which resulted in extremely short fuse. The class was waiting for Robin to come back with the right book from the library in order to solve the conflict.

Given that this was a history class, they expected Robin to know the answer right away, but she seemed to be having a bad day too and couldn't remember the exact dates for the battle of Stalingrad. The teacher was dead sure that it was between 23rd of August 1942 to 22nd of January 1943 and normally Marco didn't give a damn about a week and a half as long as he knew the correct answer, but today he just couldn't help it. It wasn't like he was a history prodigy like Robin, he just had this game at home which included a question on battle of Stalingrad and the answer clearly stated that it ended 2nd February 1943, not 22nd of January. Of course there was a possibility of it being incorrect, but he was fully prepared to apologise in case he was wrong. He just felt like arguing with someone, so he wasn't going to miss this golden opportunity.

Robin walked into the classroom with a book in her hand, using one of her fingers as a bookmark. She moved to stand between Marco and the teacher, holding the dramatic pause in best traditions of soap operas. Then she opened the book and, after nodding to herself, she said:

"On the 22d of January field marshal Paulus requested permission to surrender," she allowed the teacher to straighten himself proudly, before beating him down. "He was captured 31st of January. The battle of Stalingrad ended the 2nd February around four in the morning."

"What?" the teacher snatched the book from Robin's hands and started reading quickly; Marco was still standing in front of the class, his arms crossed on his chest and his foot tapping. After reading same lines a couple of times, the teacher finally spoke. "Well, it seems like I was wrong. Since Phoenix-san knows so much about it, how about he gives us a ten minute presentation about battle of Stalingrad this time next week?"

Marco's eyebrow twitched. He should have kept his mouth shut. He knew better and yet he just had to argue.

"Certainly," Marco said, glaring at the teacher. He went back to his seat feeling like punching a hole in a wall. When will he learn that he should keep his mouth shut at school? There was no way he'd pull off a decent presentation in history without Robin's help.

If anything, this proved the fact that the amount of functioning brain cells in his brain was swiftly declining. Speaking of the reason for that, he had to come up with a way to make Ace go all out on the training without losing control. Compared to Monday, today's training was a disappointment. It was even bigger disappointment because Marco looked forward towards sparring with Ace, who avoided the fight by all means possible. The only thing he could do to make it more obvious was to run away literally.

Marco tuned out the teacher completely as he concentrated on finding a way to get Monday's Ace out of normal Ace without any casualties. Monday's Ace was fun to spar with, normal Ace – not so much. Unfortunately, every possibility Marco came up with needed time and he wanted to fight now. Well, maybe not right now, but soon. Soon as in preferably next training, but earlier was fine too. He could start with talking to Ace about it, although he had no idea what to say. What could he say? 'I want to fight you so you're dead if you hold back ever again'? That sounded totally wrong…

Marco sighed, shifting his gaze to the history book in front of him. If he was to be honest with himself, sparring wasn't the only thing he wanted to do with Ace. This was a first for him – normally he was detached when he dated, but this time he had hard time keeping his head… Only this morning he wanted to climb into the bed to join Ace and he shouldn't even mention those damn pictures, because every time he remembered them… Idiot, that's what he was.

(^_^)

Ace considered himself a happy-go-lucky kind of guy who just went with the flow. That explained a lot in his life, including why he would agree to be Sabo's model. However, there were a couple of things people should never do unless they wanted to provoke him. Mostly that meant 'do not stand between Ace and the food', although several people could do that without fear of waking the animal sleeping within him. Lately, the list of people who could harmlessly do that increased by one person. That person was the only one who could make him stop eating by his presence alone. It didn't take a genius to figure out who that was and Nami (another person on that short list, which included Luffy, Sabo and Garp) was not stupid.

She blatantly stared at him with wide eyes and open mouth when he suddenly stopped eating his lunch as they sat in the cafeteria. At first Nami even put her palm on his forehead, in case he had a fever, but then she followed his gaze and saw the reason, who was buying coffee accompanied by Robin. When the reason noticed him and decided to walk over, Nami saw another thing anyone would have thought impossible – Ace tried to leave the food and desert the cafeteria, but was caught and forced to stay in his place.

"How are you doing?" Robin asked with a friendly smile.

"Fine," Ace answered tensely, eyeing sempai in case he had something to say about this morning's practice.

"Is that so? Lucky you then, Marco here got himself extra homework in history," she sat down on a free chair in front of them; sempai remained standing.

"What kind of extra homework? An essay?" Nami asked, curious.

"Ten-minute presentation on battle of Stalingrad for next Wednesday," Marco answered grumpily, he did not seem to like it at all.

"Look at the bright side – it could have been an essay," Ace said, trying to cheer up sempai.

"That's what I told him – presentations are easy. All he has to do is find some four minute material and drag it out to be ten," Robin nodded. "Plus I agreed to help him."

"Then why are you mad? You barely have anything to do," Ace looked at Marco with surprise.

"He's not mad about the work load, he's mad about the sole fact that he has to do it," Robin laughed.

"Oh…" Nami giggled. "You should not spend time with Ace, he's bad influence."

"Hey!" Ace exclaimed indignantly. Everybody just laughed at him, so he sighed and asked, remembering one annoying thing he had to do after school. "Anyone want to tag along to Dadan after school?"

"Sorry, I can't. I have to go to the museum - mom said they're getting a new exhibition," Robin smiled apologetically.

"Speaking of which, I completely forgot to kill Luffy for daring to say that she looked like me," Nami said with a scary smile on her face. "I'm sorry I will be busy after school too."

"No problem," Ace said; Nami was very scary sometimes.

"Marco should tag along, it'll be very educating for him," Robin said, her smile almost identical to Nami's.

"Eh?" Marco and Ace looked at Robin with the same expression on their faces – clearly doubting her mental health. That didn't pass Nami's attention either.

"Oh, I'm sure it will be very interesting for you, Marco-sempai," she said with a sly smile.

Ace cursed inwardly, regretting the day he became friends with those two. He finally understood why Zoro called Nami a witch. By the looks of it, Marco-sempai was doing the same thing.

"Fine, I'll go with you," sempai said, his whole look said 'do what you want, I don't care anymore'.

"Then after school you should go home and change into something you don't mind getting dirty," Robin said contently.

"Sure," Marco sighed, looking at Ace for help; Ace looked away, he knew he was being a coward, but there was no way they could win if Nami and Robin were their opponents. "Where do we meet then?"

"Take the bus to East Blue Dawn, it's three stops after Foosha Village," Nami answered as if it was she who had to take sempai to the Mt. Corvo.

"Actually," Ace spoke up, "it would be better if you came by my house just in case."

"Right, I forgot," Nami nodded. "It's better that way."

Sempai nodded hesitantly and Ace could not blame him – it sounded way too suspicious. If it was him, he would have thought twice before doing that. Thus, when they were on their way to the classroom, Ace texted sempai '**Sorry about that, u don't have to do this if u don't want to :)'**. The reply came surprisingly fast: '**I don't mind :) so I pick u up at ur house?**'

Ace sighed in relief when he read that because half of him hoped that sempai would tag along. He wasn't sure why half of him was that stupid – that trip will end with him being humiliated yet again for sure, - but that half of him was happy about the trip. Thus he typed: '**Yeah, will you find the way?'** and stared at his phone with anticipation. This reply was quick too '**I hope so :) you won't be asleep, right?'** Ace chuckled at that statement and texted '**That depends :D**'

'**On?**'

'**How slow u are XD**'

'**That depends on ur definition of slow**'

Ace smiled, typing '**Good one :) Let's say within two hours after school ends.**'

'**Works for me**'

'**Text me if u're lost XD**'

'**Hopefully I won't be**'

'**U got lost this morning :D'**

'**The street was stupid**'

'**U're not related to Zoro, are you?**'

'**Like hell I am, if it was him he'd be on the other side of the city XD**'

'**True enough :D**'

Ace had to put his phone away because the teacher was losing his patience and if he didn't do that he'd risk getting detention and his phone confiscated. That was the very last thing he needed right now. Plus that'd be very embarrassing to say the least. In a second he felt the phone vibrate in his pocket and his hands literally itched to get it out and read the message but he had to wait for the teacher to turn his back to the class.

Ace stared at the teacher trying to hypnotise him to turn his back to the class as his hand got the phone out of the pocket. Unfortunately, it seemed like the teacher was immune to hypnosis or Ace just sucked at hypnotising people, but it was about twenty minutes before he got his chance to read the message. When he unlocked the phone he understood that he had one brother too many. Plus that he'll probably be joining Nami after school and try to kill that idiot that wrote '**Ace I'm hungry**' to him.

* * *

**The fact that I'm puplishing this chapter is a miracle... I have two years worth of chemistry and biology to go through in the next two weeks and that's besided the university exams... Yeah, you don't need to tell me, I know I'm screwed. **

**Anyways, next chapter will be late. Again. (I'm so sorry) **

**Thanks for reviews, favourites and follows! Makes my day :)**

**~Rhe :)**


	8. Wednesday (Part 3)

**Alrighty, so here's an update. It's a short one 'cause I'm in a hurry. That is also the reason why there's nothing happening here. Count this as a filler albeit a needed one. I'm in a hurry because I'll be on vacation for two weeks and I'm leaving tonight XD**

**Beta'ed by aqua-empress at the speed of light. Thanks a lot, hon.**

**Song of the chapter: _Ongaku_ by _Kalafina._**

**Disclaimer: I promise that everyone will know once I own the OP.**

* * *

It was weird, but Marco started suspecting that he was somehow related to Zoro. He didn't have much trouble finding Ace's house when it was dark (if you didn't count the stupid street, that is), but he couldn't do that in broad daylight. He took the bus to Foosha Village, he got off the bus, he found the very same place he stood in the morning waiting for Ace's brother, but. Firstly, there were no bushes in the end of the road. Secondly, he could have sworn that the house he saw this morning was coloured green, not beige. And, finally, he sure as hell didn't see any public swimming pools anywhere.

Lucky for Marco there was a man mowing his lawn close by, so he could ask for direction. As it turned out, he was almost right, he just went too far and now he was behind Ace's house. The friendly neighbour explained him exactly which way he should go to get to the elusive house, laughing all the time that everyone who was new to the neighbourhood had the same problem as Marco. Marco thanked him and went in the said direction, happy that this was a common problem and not a sign that he was related to Zoro.

After following the directions to the letter, Marco finally found Ace's home, thinking that if someone ever wanted to rob them, they'd get lost and call for the police just to get out of the maze called Foosha Village. Now, during the day, he could take a better look of the house Ace lived in. It looked cosy, like most of the houses here, made of bricks and with a black roof. The windows and the door were painted white with occasional plant on the windowsills.

Marco walked up to the door and knocked, since he didn't find the doorbell. Maybe it was like the house – present, but hidden very well. He just raised his hand to knock again when the door opened and he was met by a pretty woman in her early thirties, her black hair covered by a yellow with orange dots bandana and she wore a dark blouse and a light blue skirt. Marco, who did not expect that, took a step back and looked at the number on the house, but it was still an eight.

"Ah, you must be Ace-chan's friend," the woman said, at least confirming that this was the right house.

"Yes, my name is Marco," Marco introduced himself politely.

"Please, come in," the woman moved, freeing the way into the house. "I'm Makino, I own a bar a couple blocks that way," she pointed to Marco's right, "plus I come here several times a week as a favour to Garp-san."

Marco nodded – he recalled Ace mentioning her this morning. He walked inside and took off his shoes, turning to Makino for any directions to Ace's whereabouts.

"Ace-chan is upstairs in his room, either he's doing his homework or he's sleeping," she said with a smile. "Or both," Makino added after a pause. "Do you know where his room is?"

"Yes, thank you," Marco nodded and moved to the stairs. Somehow, he expected them to be half-destroyed since Ace's brother moved with a grace of a mammoth in a china shop, but it looked fine.

He didn't notice it in the morning, but the wall on the stairs had pictures of Ace and his brother as they were growing up with occasional appearances from Garp and a blond kid. Thankfully, they looked nothing like the pictures he saw on the internet; they were mostly pictures of them as children. The oldest picture of Ace seemed to be taken during his entrance ceremony to the Enies Lobby High and Marco was surprised to find himself in far background talking to Robin and her mother since Pops was at another entrance ceremony that day.

The door to Ace's room was open, so Marco entered without knocking. Ace sat at his table with his feet propped on the corner of the table and eyed a book in his hands as if it personally brutally murdered every single person Ace knew. He was dressed in a faded red t-shirt and light blue jeans that were way too torn even for a fashion statement. When he heard Marco come in, Ace looked up from the book and glared at him, clearly unhappy, however that expression changed the moment he saw who was at the door. Marco even looked behind him to see if there was someone behind him – he did not expect to be the cause of such happiness.

"Finally!" Ace exclaimed, putting his feet down and literally throwing the book on the table. "A moment later and I would have burned it in my back yard," he gestured to the book.

"What was it?" Marco asked, entering the room.

"Social studies," Ace answered and then his expression changed again when he saw what Marco was wearing. "Sempai, what are those clothes?"

Marco looked at his black leather jacket, blue t-shirt and dark jeans sceptically. He chose those clothes because they weren't new, but they weren't too shabby either. He figured that he'd have to wash them in the worst-case scenario.

"What's wrong with them?" he asked, confused.

"There's nothing wrong with them!" Ace replied and Marco got a feeling that he was the one who was supposed to say that.

"I don't understand," he said.

"There's absolutely nothing wrong with them," his kouhai said as if it made all the sense in the world.

"You've lost me."

"They are way too nice."

"And that is a problem because?"

"Because I know better!" Ace went to his wardrobe, opened it and pulled out a big transparent plastic box. He opened the box and started going through clothes in it. He kept taking up one thing, look at it sceptically and then put it back into the box. After a couple of minutes it seemed like Ace finally decided on a faded yellow t-shirt with big printed number 21 and a pair of faded black jeans that, unlike Ace's, at least looked whole. "Take off your clothes," Ace said in a voice that left no room for argument.

"Excuse me?" Marco raised his eyebrows at Ace.

The raven looked up at him with confusion and Marco counted in his mind 'one, two, three'. At the count of three Ace became the colour of a ripe tomato and Marco realised something. He just found a new favourite thing to do, namely making his kouhai blush. He just couldn't help himself – Ace just looked too damn cute blushing and it was impossible to resist teasing him.

"I… I didn't mean… like that," Ace mumbled, looking anywhere but at Marco. "I meant you should change into these…"

"Is that so?"

Ace didn't answer that, he just bolted from the room, mumbling something about changing clothes. Marco chuckled silently and took a closer look at the offered articles. Both looked old and worn, but clean. He shrugged and started to undress. The clothes were the right size, which surprised Marco a little, but he wasn't much bigger than Ace, so that was almost expected. He folded his own clothes and took them with him as he left the room and went down the stairs. Since he only knew the kitchen in the house, he went there, hoping to find Ace there.

Ace wasn't in the kitchen, instead of him Marco found Makino there. She was chopping something energetically with several pans on the stove. Slightly at loss as to what he should do, Marco walked to the chair he sat on this morning and put his clothes there, standing slightly awkwardly behind the said chair.

Makino glances over her shoulder to see who came into the kitchen. When she saw that it was Marco, she smiled at him.

"This is better," she said.

"You mean the clothes?" Marco asked just in case.

"Of course. Yours were way too nice for where you are going."

"I don't think I understand how they are way too nice. I could always wash them," Marco said, slightly confused.

"It's not about you. It's about people you are going to meet," Makino said with a smile, putting vegetables she was chopping in one of the pans. "You'll have to wait about twenty minutes, you came earlier than I expected."

"I'm not hungry, I ate at home," Marco said, hoping that he won't have to force down undoubtedly good food.

"Again, it's not about you," Makino laughed. "You'll be taking the food up to Dadan. I think it's nice that Ace-chan is still visiting her from time to time. Plus I can send food with him, unlike Lu-chan, who wouldn't be able to resist it."

"You know Dadan?" Marco asked since he wanted to know who he was going to visit. For unknown reason he didn't want to ask Ace about her.

"Of course I do. She may seem angry from the outside, but she really is a very kind woman. Not many people would have taken kids in, especially not where she lives. Although I think that had something to do with Garp-san and not her kindness."

"Did she take Ace in?"

"Of course. Ace and Luffy and even Sabo when he showed up. She wasn't too happy about that at first, but she warmed up to them very quickly."

"Hm…" Marco hummed, showing that he was listening, although, if he understood everything correctly, he had some questions. For example, if they grew up in a poor neighbourhood, how did Sabo end up in Mariejois? Or, a simpler question, where exactly was that poor neighbourhood? He was brought back to earth when Ace entered the kitchen with more clothes in his arms, although this time it was a number of different sweatshirts.

"Here, choose one instead of your jacket," he said, avoiding looking at Marco directly.

"Can I at least keep my shoes?" Marco joked, taking a dark blue sweatshirt with a zipper.

Ace didn't answer; he just gathered the rest of the shirts and went out of the kitchen. In a second he said loudly:

"Yeah, they're fine."

Marco blinked in surprise, unsure if he should laugh. He didn't expect Ace to take that question seriously.

(^_^)

Ace sighed for the nth time in a row, earning another glance from sempai. They were getting closer to the Grey Terminal and he was getting cold feet. Should he really be taking sempai to meet Dadan? Her gang was way too intense for normal people to meet… It didn't help that their way of greeting was dangerous for anyone who didn't know them too well… Plus there were those holes he, Luffy and Sabo dug in the yard many years ago. The gang used them to their advantage and camouflaged them to perfection so that if you didn't know about their placement, you were bound to fall into at least four of them.

They came to the perimeter fence that surrounded the Grey Terminal and Ace sighed again. This was not going to be pretty… He followed the fence to hole he always used to get on the other side. Before crossing he put his backpack and the bag he had on the ground (both with food from Makino) and climbed the tree next to the fence. He could literally feel sempai's questioning eyes on him, but he was not going to go into the Grey Terminal without a weapon and that was what he had up in the tree. Ace figured that one staff was enough and that sempai could easily defend himself in hand to hand combat, so he left Luffy's and Sabo's staves up in the tree and climbed down with his.

"What is that for?" sempai asked the moment Ace jumped down with a staff.

"Safe passage," Ace answered and that was true for the most part – when thugs of the Terminal saw Ace without his staff they sometimes decided that he was defenceless without it and decided to attack. Having his staff with him ensured that nobody will come close to them with fighting in mind. "Do you mind taking the bag, sempai?"

"If you forgot, I happened to suggest that half an hour ago," Marco smiled, taking the bag from the ground.

"Thanks," Ace took his backpack and climbed through the hole at the bottom of the fence.

Somehow he could always feel the difference once he entered the Grey Terminal, even if this area was normally an empty place. He was instantly alert, preferring to trust his instincts instead of his brain. That was something that betrayed his upbringing – sempai, for example, looked relaxed and it seemed like he had his guard down. Ace pushed down the need to scold sempai for such carelessness and started leading the way.

Marco-sempai was looking around with curiosity, while Ace was scanning surroundings for any threats. Since he was ambushed around here on Monday, he didn't trust the empty space. In a couple of minutes they came to something that could be called a street, if it wasn't for the piles of rubbish around it.

There were people walking here, many of them greeting Ace and exchanging a couple lines with him. He happily talked to them, after all he's known most of them since he was a kid and most of them were as kind to him as it was possible in this kind of place. Of course, he had to beat sense into some of them, but that was very long time ago, sometimes even before Luffy showed up. Like he mentioned before – he was an angry kid. To be honest, Ace was surprised himself that he wasn't on any drugs and had never been to jail.

On their way to the forest Ace ran into Pagaya, who was probably the most polite and kind human on earth. They've bumped into each other a lot when Ace lived with Dadan. Pagaya came to the Grey Terminal several times a week and gave food and clothes to people – he had some kind of charity organisation and Ace had to admit that ninety percent of all the clothes he wore while he lived here came from Pagaya.

"It's been a while, Ace-san," Pagaya said, nodding to Ace.

"How are you, Pagaya-san?" Ace replied, bowing a little. "Are you here with Conis?"

"Yes, she's over there," he pointed to Ace's left, "in charge of the kitchen. Are you here for a walk of are you going to Dadan?"

"Yeah. Call me if Bluejam starts causing trouble again," Ace nodded.

"That's very kind of you, thank you," Pagaya replied with a smile. "Still, I don't want to bother you, you must be busy."

"I'm never too busy to come over and kick him in the head, I still don't think I've paid him back for what his flunkies did to Luffy."

"In that case I'll be counting on you, Ace-san. Send my regards to Dadan."

"Say hi to Conis for me," Ace answered, smiling. "I'll be going now."

Once they have walked far enough, Ace felt like he should explain some things since sempai had been weirdly quiet all the time.

"That was Pagaya-san, he and his daughter Conis come here often, fixing food and clothes," he said.

"Who's Bluejam?" Marco asked thoughtfully, somehow Ace felt that sempai ignored what he just said.

"That's a long story… I think we were the ones that started it, but he's a complete d-bag, so I'm happy to teach him a lesson with or without a reason. Plus his gang beat up Luffy really bad one time, so that is personal now," Ace sighed.

"You started it?" sempai asked with raised eyebrows.

"That is… a long story… We, kind of, stole from them… In our defence, we didn't know that we stole from a gang," Ace waved his hands, almost hitting himself on the head with his staff.

"You stole from him?" Marco looked at him sceptically.

"That was seven years ago, it's been forever since I stole anything," he defended himself, waving his hands again and this time he actually hit himself on the head. Ace rubbed his head as sempai chuckled.

"I didn't say anything, I have no right to accuse you for stealing whatsoever."

"No way," Ace looked at sempai with suspicion. "You? Stealing? Stop pulling my leg."

At that Marco laughed loudly.

"Trust me, you don't know a quarter of what I did until I was thirteen. They would have put me into Impel Down had I not been adopted."

Ace stared at sempai with round eyes and open mouth. There was no way in hell that Marco-sempai, the Phoenix Marco, had that kind of past. There was no way.

"Bullshit," Ace said before he could stop himself.

Sempai laughed again.

"I wish. They've actually gave me a tour around that hellhole, not once but eight times. Two more and I would have had permanent residence there."

"You've got to be kidding me. You?"

"Having hard time believing?"

"But you came into Enies Lobby, how did that work? No offence, but that's a huge gap."

"I could say the same thing about you if you grew up here," sempai gestured to the piles of rubbish around them.

"I didn't grow up here," Ace blushed a little. "I've spent a lot of time here, but I didn't grow up here."

"Where did you grow up then?"

"There," Ace pointed to the mountain they were walking towards.

"Wait, isn't that… That's Mount Corvo, isn't it?"

"Mhm," Ace nodded.

"I heard that people shouldn't come there because of the cutthroats and all the thugs…" sempai looked genuinely surprised.

"They're not all that dangerous, there are worse things on that mountain," Ace shrugged casually because the most dangerous thing on that mountain wasn't there yet. One third of it was probably doing his homework now, another third was probably running away from Nami and the last part was about to return on its territory. Even the giant tiger was no problem – Ace could take him on solo and win since he was fifteen. As to poor cutthroats and thugs, he's been terrorizing them as long as he remembered.

"For example?"

Ace scratched his head, having hard time to decide if he should mention himself, but then decided against it.

"For example a giant tiger. Or the bear. Or the wolves. Or the crocs. By the way, crocs are tasty."

"Why do I feel like you're the most dangerous thing here?" Marco laughed, clearly not bothered by the variety of the animal kingdom the mountain had to offer.

"I'm not dangerous! Well, unless they've started it," Ace laughed as well.

"Yeah, we're all white and fluffy until they start to mess with us," sempai said with a smile.

"So very true," Ace sighed in mock sadness.

* * *

**I swear there will be more happening in the next chappie. **

**Thanks for all the reviews, favourites and follows. Unless you review today, I will answer the review when I'll get back from vacation.**

**Cya**

**~Rhe**


	9. Wednesday (Part 4)

**I AM SUPER MEGA SORRY! *bows* I have no excuse for such a late update. I hope this chapter will make it up to you, despite the fact that it feels like I'm overcompensating (because there was nothing happening in two previous chapters and now there's a lot of stuff).**

**I literally killed my beta, so R.I.P. aqua-empress. Alright, almost killed, she's still alive but barely so.**

**One more thing, in this chapter there's a line from a tv-show. I want you to try and guess which one is it. The first person who'd get it right would 'guest appear' in (if my calculations are correct) chapter 11. Clues will be in the end A/N.**

**Song of the chapter: _Take Me Away_ by _Globus_ (youtube amv Take Ace Away)**

**Disclaimer: still not mine.**

* * *

The closer they got to Dadan's the colder Ace's feet were so to speak. People who came with him, Luffy or Sabo were weirdoes in their own ways, so it wasn't that odd for them to meet Dadan and her gang. Sempai, however, was a normal human being, who had some 'run-ins with the law' as a child, namely he was completely sane and normal now, his criminal past long forgotten and buried in the backyard of his house. Well, Ace's criminal past was also buried in his backyard, he didn't steal or anything, but he was used to these kind of people, he came to Grey Terminal at least twice a week after all. Not to forget the fact that he grew up here, making everything seem normal to him, despite his brain telling him that this was way outside the box. Oh, and while he was at it, Pochi the second hated him to the core and attacked him the second he was in the vicinity of the house. The last thing Ace wanted was for sempai to witness him fighting with an angry bullterrier.

Ace sighed, moving forward with a decent pace, Marco-sempai strolling along as if he was out in the city park where the biggest thing were pigeons. To make everything worse, they already had a run-in with a giant bear who, after spotting Ace, gave out a high-pitched yelp and ran for his life. Ace pretended it had nothing to do with him. Sempai pretended he didn't see anything, which, by the way, was something normal people did.

Approximately two hundred metres from the bandit lair Ace stopped. He had to explain some things.

"Sempai, we're almost there."

"So?"

"You'll have to do exactly as I tell you, no matter what."

The answer to that was a crooked eyebrow.

"The people we're going to meet… they are… um..." Ace searched his brain for the best word.

"Special? Different?" Marco-sempai suggested.

"Yeah… kind of… Anyways… um…" this was slowly turning into self-torture – Ace had no idea how to explain that he was brought up by cutthroats and that they were about to enter the said cutthroats' lair and at the same time that these cutthroats were mostly harmless. How do you explain that to a normal person without sending them running for their lives? How do you explain that you are not a bait to lure helpless (not so much in this case) prey right in the hands of murderers? That's textbook criminal psychology!

"Do you know that dog? It's sneaking up on us," sempai interrupted Ace's train of thought.

"What?" he looked around wildly, praying it was just a stray wolf.

Unfortunately he had no such luck. Right behind him, by the bushes, was a fugly bullterrier Ace wanted to wipe from the face of the earth. Pochi the first was a super-awesome dog who Ace loved to bits. His successor, however, was a hyena, skipped from the zoo dressed in dog's clothing. It was as if the dog had some kind of vendetta against Ace. The only thing that would satisfy that dog was to raise its leg on Ace's tombstone.

"Come here, doggy," Marco-sempai bowed and patted his legs to get the hellish creature to him. To Ace's gigantic surprise, the mutt wagged its tail and trotted to sempai for a petting. "Good boy," sempai fearlessly patted the monster. When he saw Ace's expression, he frowned. "You don't like dogs?"

"Oh, I like dogs very much. This here is not a dog."

"What is it then?"

"Monster from the depths of hell itself."

"Like Cerberus?"

"No no no, I could cuddle and play catch with Cerberus, this is a creature of pure evil."

"I take it that you know this dog?"

"This is not a dog."

"Alright, this evil being."

"Unfortunately."

"I don't understand, look at it!" at that sempai courageously lifted the incarnation of evil and hugged it and that incarnation only wagged its tail happily, making attempts to lick sempai's face. It made no sense – this was the friendliest Ace has ever seen this monster. It was always kind of grumpy and if it saw Ace, it instantly went berserk or it ambushed him from behind.

"I am looking at it. I haven't looked away since you noticed it."

"Come on, it's totally harmless," sempai scratched the monster behind its ears.

"Yes, and I am a daisy."

Sempai rolled his eyes at the lost cause and changed the subject:

"You were saying? Before, about the people?"

"Right… Anyways… Do what I tell you and no one will get hurt," Ace said with a sigh.

"Aha…" Marco-sempai nodded solemnly, but it was clear that he didn't take Ace seriously.

Ace just shook his head with another sigh and moved to the lair. Sempai followed him, curiosity clearly evident on his face. Ace just rolled his eyes to such naivety. The devil-creature was set loose from sempai's embrace and trotting beside the said sempai, for once looking like a real dog. Not that it made Ace trust it a slightest bit, there was no way he'd ever trust this monster, whichever disguise it used.

Once close enough to see the house from behind the trees, Ace turned to Marco.

"Wait here," he said. Marco-sempai answered with a raised eyebrow and an overall sceptical look. "Humour me," with that Ace left his bags and, lightly tapping his shoulder with his staff, went to the house. He was still doubtful about this whole thing – yeah, sempai was strong, but Ace wasn't sure if sempai could fight with a gun pointed at him. Maybe he shouldn't have left sempai alone… Ace turned around just to make sure that Marco was still where he left him and indeed there he was, petting the hellish monster.

Ace rolled his eyes at that and went to the house, carefully avoiding the spots he knew were holes. Of course, now they were camouflaged, but he was one of those who dug the holes, so he knew the approximate locations. He stopped in front of the door, not too close, and knocked, using his staff. He knew these people all too well to stand close to the door.

At first nothing happened, which made Ace suspicious. He took a gliding step to the side, so that if the door opened, he'd be behind it, and knocked again. No answer again. They probably were luring him in, but Ace wasn't easily fooled, so when, after the third knock, the door opened violently and several knives flew out. Used to this kind of prank, Ace kicked the door shut and enjoyed the curses coming from behind the door. He stood vigilantly, ready to evade whatever came his way, when the door opened again.

"I told you it was Ace! He's the only one who has a habit of kicking doors into people's faces," said a voice who Ace recognised as Dogra.

"'People' shouldn't try to kill me when I decide to knock on the door," Ace huffed, finally stepping forward. "This is the exact reason for why I can't bring people with me!"

"We're not exactly your next-door-neighbours for you to bring people with you!" Dogra argued, looking up at Ace angrily.

"As if moving you bunch into the town would make you less hostile! The first thing you'd do is to break in your neighbour's house!"

"Now, now, it really depends on the neighbour, whether I liked him or not…" said Magra.

"Idiots…" Ace muttered under his breath. "Where's everybody?"

"Dadan's inside, others are out, but they should be back any moment," Dogra said. As if to illustrate his words, there was a yelp from around where Ace left Marco-sempai.

"Shit," Ace hissed, bolting in that direction.

Nothing in his life could have prepared him for the scene he ran into. Ace's jaw slacked as he took in the situation. Marco-sempai had his back against a big tree surrounded by bandits with drawn guns. It would have been fine if the scene ended with that, but it wasn't all. The hellish creature was in front of sempai, growling at the bandits, one of whom sat on the ground with a bloodied nose. What didn't fit into Ace's understanding of the world was the fact that sempai held one of the bandits as a living shield hostage, sempai's left hand holding a gun pointed at the hostage's head. Sempai's right arm was lying on the hostage's shoulder, pointing a gun at other bandits. Neither side seemed to want to put down the guns.

"What the…" Ace heard Dogra say next to him. "Who the fuck is that?"

"My sempai…"

"Why'd you bring this psycho with you?"

"He's not a psycho!" Ace defended. "It's called self-defence!"

(^_^)

Psycho?! Now Marco was pissed. The only psycho here was the jerk with the broken nose – Marco didn't sneak up on people and put a gun to their heads. He glared at the dwarf next to Ace, mindful of his living shield and kind of thankful for Izo's shady past with gun-dealers. Otherwise he would have had a lot less of an idea what to do when a gun was pointed at his head. Meanwhile, Ace started to negotiate with the sneaky jerks. Damn right he started with them, there was no way Marco would have put his gun down when he was that outnumbered.

"I know you started it, so put your guns down," Ace made the most idiotic move ever – he walked in and stood exactly between Marco and the thugs, directly in the line of shot.

"Ace, move away, there's no telling when that lunatic will start shooting! Garp-san will skin us alive if you'll get hurt!" the dwarf tried to reason with his stupid kouhai and if it wasn't for the purpose Marco would have minded being called a lunatic a lot more.

"Offend him one more time and_ I_ will flay you," Ace growled at the dwarf; Marco didn't expect Ace to stand up for him like that, not that he minded that at all. "Now, put your guns down."

"Not until he releases Happa!" argued one of bandits.

"Not until you lower your guns," Marco shook his head; at that Ace face-palmed with a loud sigh.

"Alright," Ace nodded, although he sounded ticked off. "How about we trade hostages?"

"Wha..? No way we'd let one of our own be a hostage!" the bandits argued, showing a surprising unanimity.

"Then it's good I'm not one of your own anymore, isn't it?" Ace rolled his eyes.

"NO WAY!" this was even more evident agreement of opinion among thugs than before, which made Marco raise his eyebrows a little.

"What do you say, sempai?" Ace completely ignored them. "I'll be your hostage instead of that idiot, as you can see I'm much more valuable."

Marco nodded hesitantly – it's not like he had much of a choice here. He watched as Ace casually cast his staff aside (the dwarf picked it up immediately) and walked over to him. Unlike the bandits behind him, his kouhai looked calm as a cucumber. Trying to act as if he was exchanging hostages every day, Marco released the slow idiot he was holding. True to his word Ace took the idiot's place, although not without showing the direction for the idiot with a strong kick in the ass. Then, pointing the gun away from him with two fingers, Ace ordered:

"Happy now? Put your guns down," and then he whispered barely audibly. "Sempai, I'm so sorry for this, I didn't think they were this stupid…"

"I don't mind at all," Marco murmured and to his surprise Ace's posture stiffened immediately. Unsure what it meant, he scanned the surroundings for any possible threats (aside from the obvious one that still refused to lower their weapons). "What is it?"

Ace shook his head slightly and repeated:

"Put the guns down," when the bandits grumbled but still didn't obey, Ace whispered to Marco. "Could you please fire in the air to show that you are serious?"

"What?" Marco wasn't sure he heard correctly.

"Could you fire into the air? Just not too close to my ear."

"Why?"

"Didn't I say 'do what I tell you'?"

"Yeah, but why should I fire in the air?"

"Just do it."

Trusting Ace to know better, Marco lifted the gun he pointed at the bandits and shot in the air. He had never fired a real gun before, so the loud noise startled him a little, but not as much as the raven that fell on top of one of the thugs. Oddly enough, the poor bird worked really well – the bandits dropped their guns and raised their hands as one.

"Did you know?" Marco frowned, trying to keep himself from laughing at the expressions on the faces in front of him.

"I had no idea…" Ace snickered. "Although it worked perfectly, don't you think?"

"Perfectly, my ass…" Marco grumbled, releasing the magazines of both guns and removing the slides, allowing everything to fall on the ground. He then threw both guns far away into the forest under angry shouts from the bandits, half of whom ran after the guns.

Ace smiled at him apologetically and ordered to the bandits:

"There's food from Makino in the bags, take it inside. I think it's still warm so don't put it in the fridge."

Once the order was given, Ace went to the house and Marco followed him, unsure if he'd get shot in the back or not. His attention quickly changed to the house though – he wasn't sure if he's ever seen something like that. It had its own lookout tower and Marco could easily imagine Ace climbing up there as a kid. Well, at least he would have climbed it at some point. The house was only one storey high, but high enough to probably have an attic. It was made of yellow bricks and had a red roof, but what really caught Marco's attention was a pair of crossed swords above the exit. It kind of reminded him of a jolly roger. In the doorway stood a humongous woman with flaming red curly hair and very masculine features. She wore a white shirt open in a way that made Marco wish he was blind, really. Over the shirt she had a long pink beaded necklace that, combined with military-coloured pants, wide leather belt and a heeled boot, looked ridiculously out of place. One of her legs was in a cast.

"Who'd you bring this time?" the woman croaked at Ace.

"That's Marco-sempai, he's the captain of my judo club," Ace answered. "Sempai, meet Dadan."

Marco ignored the ignoring of the whole 'boyfriend for a week' thing because it didn't matter, not at all. What mattered, though, was the brain dynamics of Ace's brother, because no one in their right mind would say that the woman in front of Marco looked anything like Nami. It made perfect sense that Nami wanted to kill that idiot for offending her like that…

"He looks stupid," Dadan said, looking at Marco and he realised that he's been staring at her with his mouth open for some time now.

"I am sorry… I am so very sorry… I am truly very sorry…" Marco turned his head to Ace, although his eyes were glued to Dadan. "I am so sorry, but how is THAT 'looks like Nami'?" he pointed at the woman in front of him.

It seemed like the whole forest roared with laughter, although it was only the bandits and Ace, who bent forward, holding his stomach. The only ones who didn't laugh was Marco himself and Dadan.

"This is priceless…" Ace chocked out after a minute, wiping the tears from his eyes. "For the future, don't ever trust anything my brother says about appearances, names and how things work. His brain works differently from ours…"

"Aha… But still… what's the common denominator?" Marco frowned, studying Dadan, trying to find anything that looks remotely like the number three on the 'Most Wanted' list.

"Um…" Ace stared at Dadan as well. "Right! It's the hair colour!"

"Is that so?" Marco looked at the object in question. It kind of did look like Nami's hair, only it was super curly. Izo would have killed to have naturally curly hair and would have had a fit about the way this woman was treating her hair.

"It's gotta be it! It's the only thing I can think of…" Ace shrugged.

(^_^)

Despite the little 'accident' with the hostages and a slight misunderstanding, Ace could say that sempai's integration with the Dadan Family went really well. While Ace talked to Dadan about school and how Luffy and Sabo were doing (the latter had too much to do to be able to come often and heck if he knew what was going on in that head of Luffy's), Marco was dragged into a game of poker. Ace seriously suspected that the bandits wanted to have some fun with sempai and make him loose big, but their hopes were crushed mercilessly. Despite their desperate cheating, they were still losing to sempai, who sat there with an amazing poker face.

Soon the whole gang gathered around to watch the grand finale – Marco versus Dogra, who was the best player in the house. It was amazing that he was as good as he was given the fact that he and the whole gang were terrible liars. Ace, who knew a trick or two himself and learned the basics of poker cheating here (the rest he honed during breaks with Nami who was a genius when it came to cheating money out of people's wallets), was surprised that even with everybody staring at him, sempai just sat there serenely, showing Dogra a perfect royal straight flush in spades. With a perfect poker face.

For a moment there was complete silence, then…

"Cheater!" Dogra cried indignantly, throwing angrily his four of a kind on the table.

"Beg pardon?" Marco asked politely with slightly raised eyebrows. "Unlike you, I don't have an extra set of cards in my sleeves."

"This is slander!"

"I don't know, he's probably right…" Dadan said thoughtfully.

Both players were forced to take of their shirts off and true enough, Dogra had sleeves full of cards. Marco, however was clean as a whistle. It made Ace very thoughtful, namely what would happen if sempai was to face Nami in a poker game. Nami was notorious for never losing a game, so sempai could be a worthy opponent. That is unless he already played against Nami and lost, although Ace didn't think that sempai was the kind of guy who could lose. It was kind of a no-brainer that Marco-sempai won, no matter what.

Another no-brainer was that if Ace came to visit Dadan, he had to go hunting. Somehow it became sort of tradition that he, Sabo and Luffy provided meat – something he haven't thought about when he agreed to take sempai with him. Leaving Marco with the thugs was out of the question because there was no way it would end peacefully because the bandits were pretty competitive and, judging by a dangerous glint in sempai's eyes, Marco was too. The solution was pretty easy – Ace quickly dragged sempai out of the shack with him despite the protests of the general population. Maybe he worried about the wrong thing… He should have worried about the fact that the thugs might like sempai and force him to stay… It didn't look like Marco would have minded that, but Ace dragged him out anyway.

"They seemed like a cheerful bunch," sempai said as they were walking away from the lair.

"They are," Ace nodded, pushing some of the branches out of the way. "They take some getting used to, but they are. You seem to have adapted very quickly, sempai."

"Well, if you had fourteen siblings you would have adapted quickly too," Marco chuckled.

"Did you just say fourteen?" Ace stared at sempai with round eyes, imagining fourteen Luffys. He would have starved to death if that was the case…

"Yeah, we're one big family," Marco smiled. "Add me, Pops and Stefan and we're seventeen living in our house."

"Who's Stefan?" Ace half expected to hear 'Pop's boyfriend' so he wasn't sure why he asked.

"Our riesenschnauzer," came the answer.

"Ah…" Ace nodded. That explained how come sempai got along with the devil himself.

"Why, what did you think?"

"A cat maybe, you don't seem like a dog-loving type," Ace half-lied, there was no way he'd say what he originally thought, it's get him either a punch in the face or endless teasing.

"Rather, I'm not a cat-loving type," sempai snorted.

"You don't like cats?"

"You can never be sure with them, they can be purring one second and attack you the next…"

"Look at the bright side – they have better personal hygiene than the dogs. I mean, Pochi the first always found a place to roll in the mud."

"That is true," sempai nodded thoughtfully. "Although I still like dogs better."

"I like parrots," Ace said after some consideration. "They are funny and you can teach them to speak."

"I wouldn't want to have one… Not with my brothers around or visiting occasionally anyway," Marco shook his head.

"Why?"

"Because they could teach it to speak."

"And?"

"Imagine having a parrot and a bunch of brothers who love to prank you. Add those two together, what would you get?"

"A very rude parrot," Ace laughed. "I see where you're going with this."

"That is why I like dogs, you can't teach them to speak," sempai smiled.

Ace smiled as well, although at the thought of him having a parrot. Its vocabulary would have consisted of two phrases – 'Ace, meat!' and 'Ace, food!'. Speaking of meat and food, he'll probably get crock today, mostly because they're tasty and big. Therefore Ace set course to the river, already imagining… Weeeeell, shit. Now there was a matter of how to feed sempai, because he was such an easy prey. Only this morning sempai took his eyes off of Luffy, a mistake no one should ever make. Granted, he didn't know the danger of it, but still…

"Sempai, there's another thing I need to warn you about."

"Aha… And that is?"

"You are incredibly naïve."

"Am I?"

"You are. You expect that if it's your plate, it's your food on it and no one's going to touch it."

"I take it that it's not the case here."

"No. And there are too many people for me to keep away for you to take your time and eat in peace."

"So?"

"So you'll have to do it yourself. Anything goes; it'll be a… real dogfight. If you have to literally kick someone out of the way, do that."

"Aha…"

"Sempai, I'm serious!"

"I'm not saying you're not, I just understood where you're coming from and what happened on Tuesday."

Ace rolled his eyes, blushing a little. Leave it to him to leave an unforgettable embarrassing memory. Good thing sempai didn't mention anything that happened this morning.

(^_^)

When Ace told him that it was going to be a real dogfight, Marco didn't take him too seriously. Who would? He expected some competition, some pushing… He didn't expect for it to actually be a… The word dogfight described it perfectly. Marco didn't even get to marvel at the fact that they were eating a crocodile (which, by the way, turned out to be awesome) he really wanted to take some home with him to give his brothers a taste but dismissed that idea the second it all started.

He was literally sent flying as he was pushed out of the way. When Marco tried to approach the meat he was shoved and kicked (the bruises were going stay there for weeks for sure) and some part of him refused to believe that this was happening. Thus, when that stupid dog stole the piece he finally acquired, Marco saw red. This was the first time since Pops adopted him that he told his self-restrain to stick it. Needless to say, there was a LOT of anger bottled up over the years and the release of it equalled a nuclear blast.

He came to his senses when he was standing in the middle of the room, right next to the giant plate that still had enough meat on, with a dead zone of two meters around him. The bandits were covering in fear, more than half of them sporting bruises and cuts of various degrees and looking at him with terror. Marco quickly looked around and found Ace to his right, sitting on the floor with a plate full of meat in his lap, looking up at him in awe.

"Wow…" Ace breathed. "Sempai, what are you still doing at school? You could be making money as a hit man or underground fighter…"

"That… hm… wasn't intentional…" Marco managed to say. He quickly got himself some meat and walked over to sit next to Ace.

The bandits slowly came to their senses, approaching the meat sneakily. They watched Marco with a corner of their eyes, trying to stay as far away from him as possible. It looked hilarious, so he (in order to cheer himself up because he was starting to feel down because of his outburst) glared at random bandits, who turned white and retreated from the plate the second they saw him glaring at them. Ace, done with his meal, was rolling on the floor laughing.

The fact that Ace found it funny and wasn't afraid of him after witnessing the whole scene made Marco immensely relieved. Before Pops came around Marco didn't have any friends because people were afraid he might lash out at them (a stark contrast to how people were going out of their way to make him like them and call them his friend now, it didn't even feel like a 180, more like 540 or even 900). He felt very happy about that, somehow it made him feel like he was fine the way he was, that he didn't have to hide who he was.

Marco reached for a piece of bread and his jaw dropped when he saw his hand. Unbelieving, he stared at both his hands – both were a bloody mess. It was weird, he didn't feel a thing but he could clearly see that the skin was torn on his knuckles…

"Sempai, what're you… Holy shit!" Ace jumped when he saw his hands. Marco watched, dumbfounded, as his plate was confiscated, but only briefly so, because Ace quickly put all kinds of things on the plate including more meat (for a second there Marco was ready to kick Ace's ass if he planned on getting away with _his_ food) and then grabbed Marco's forearm and pulled him up. He obliged, although mostly because Ace had his plate and there was no way that after all that happened that he'd leave it out of his sight.

Ace pulled him into a kitchen, closing the door behind them. It was pretty old-fashioned and small, compared to the rest of the rooms. It contained a working space and left barely enough for a table, pushed to a wall with three chairs around it. Ace put the plate on the table and led Marco to the sink, opening the cold water tap. Marco still didn't feel a thing, so he just observed as Ace first tried the water himself, then carefully put Marco's hands under the water, tenderly washing the blood away.

"Are you afraid of me?" Marco suddenly asked, surprising himself.

"Of course I am!" Ace snorted. "The whole club is terrified of you, I thought you knew about it."

"I didn't mean…" he started, but was cut off.

"Sempai, what do you think? Why would I be afraid of you if I'm capable of the same thing?" Ace looked up from the sink, smiling. "Plus they deserved it - that was no way of treating a guest."

"I honestly thought you were exaggerating," Marco laughed.

"Next time you'll know better and will listen to me," Ace laughed too. "Doesn't look too bad… Does this hurt?" Ace gently pressed around each knuckle, testing the bones.

"I honestly don't feel a thing," Marco shook his head, observing Ace's concentrated face.

"Can you move your fingers?"

Marco did just that, wriggling his fingers as if he was playing piano.

"Well, you don't seem to have broken any bones, which is good, because a hand cast is a pain, trust me, I would know."

"I will trust you on that."

"Now that you know better," Ace added and they both laughed.

"Now that I know better," Marco nodded solemnly, "I swear I will do exactly as you say from this moment on."

Ace rolled his eyes at him and pointed to a chair with a smile. Marco did as he was told, sitting down in front of his plate, while Ace raided the cupboards. In a minute he came to the table with a red metallic box with a white cross on it and a fork. He handed the fork to Marco, who took it happily – he didn't get to eat much yet. The red box was placed on the table and opened, revealing all kinds of medicaments, from Ibuprofen to throat medicine and bandages. After some searching (while Marco started to fill his stomach), Ace took out cotton swabs and a bottle with some liquid. Marco took the bottle examining the label out of pure curiosity. The label simply stated chlorhexidine. He shrugged and gave the bottle to Ace, who raised eyebrows at him in silent question.

First hand that was treated was the right one and Marco felt slightly annoyed at how thorough Ace was, but said nothing because the reason wasn't worth it. So what if he had some trouble using a fork with his left because there wasn't a knife in his right? Marco looked at Ace who was treating his hand with an efficiency of a paramedic with many years of practice. Come to think of it, if he grew up here, it felt like a no-brainer that he had to be able to treat any injuries himself. Marco knew the basics as well and normally he would have insisted on treating himself alone, but, for an unknown reason, he took a step back and allowed Ace to fix his hands. Speaking of which…

"Ouch… now I start feeling something…" he pulled his hand away from Ace and shook it violently. The knuckles were the tell-tale yellow-ish colour. Fucking iodine with alcohol… It was good for any kinds of cuts, but stung like a bitch.

"I'm done with it anyways, so give me the other one," Ace laughed at Marco's expression.

"Sadist…" Marco muttered under his breath, giving up his left hand and taking the fork with a still stinging right.

"At your service," Ace answered, starting on the left hand. "It's not that bad, you know. It will take some time to heal, but it could have been worse."

Marco nodded, admitting that it could, indeed, have been worse. For example if one of the bandits brought a weapon to the table, that would have sucked.

"This is my fault, you know," Ace muttered. "I should have said no when Robin suggested for you to come along."

"Have you even met Robin?" Marco said sceptically. "If she wants something to happen, it will happen."

"I guess that's true, she would have skipped the new exhibition in order to get things the way she wants them," Ace started dabbing the iodine on and Marco winced. Then he imagined Robin here and shuddered – she knew way, way too much and she loved to tease. The only person worse than Robin was Thatch. If he had to choose between having either one of them to tag along, it would have been Robin, hands down. Thatch had no brain-mouth filter whatsoever. At least not when he should keep his mouth shut.

Marco finished his meal in peace (thank God for that), while Ace put the medicine kit away and made some instant coffee. He immediately asked for a cup too, this was a very long day for him, not to mention eventful. He had a very vague idea about what he's going to tell Pops about his knuckles and there was definitely a questioning waiting for him, the second Pops notices his hands. He'll have to figure something out about it, half-truth at the very least, because lying to Pops was not an option.

(^_^)

Ace was leading the way through the forest for one last stop before they were going back into town. It wasn't late yet or, rather, it wasn't too late, so they had just enough time to swing by one place and head home. The place had an amazing view over the city and it would be a pity to pass the opportunity, especially when it wasn't that big of a detour. Sempai didn't seem to mind that, at least that's what he said when they climbed a steep slope. Given that Ace knew every stone there, he was the first one climbing with sempai just a meter behind him.

Ace's mind went back to what happened the lair not more than an hour ago. 'I mean, DAMN! He's not even using half his strength in club… No wonder he was pissed at me this morning, it wasn't even enough to break a sweat!' Ace shook his head. That was it, there was no way in hell he'll ever hold back if he's paired up with sempai. Why did he ever think that Marco-sempai needed to be protected was beyond him. It was Marco-sempai, for crying out loud!

Ace felt his hands itch, so he clenched the staff harder, trying to calm down. Kind of pointless, given the fact that he's been antsy since he locked eyes with whatever that woke up in Marco-sempai in the shack. Whatever it was, it was not the normal sempai, it was something raw, wild and extremely dangerous. It locked eyes with Ace for a second, but deemed him unthreatening and/or friendly, so it didn't touch him. Ace kind of wished that it did…

They finally reached the top and Ace turned around to look at sempai. It would be unfair, sempai wasn't armed and his hands were hurt… Ace followed Marco's every move with his eyes, moving his right wrist so that the staff pointed to the ground with one end and followed his arm to the shoulder with the other. Sempai looked at him warily, aware of the change in behaviour. Ace would have been disappointed if he didn't.

"What's up?" sempai asked, sounding slightly unsure.

"What do you think?" Ace asked teasingly, looking Marco straight in the eyes. Whatever it was buried within sempai, he wanted it out. Now. As in right now. Ace didn't give a damn that this wasn't like him to act like this and that this level of impulsivity was way above his normal. He let the staff slowly slide through his grip until it hit the ground.

He was not surprised in the slightest that Marco was in front of him in less than a second, giving him little to no time for evasion. Ace smiled widely as he made a quick turn, barely evading the attack and retaliating with an attack of his own. This was way better than the dojo, he's never felt such exhilaration before, it was as if he was on fire… Ace never hid that he loved to fight, but he rarely got a chance to do so without any restrictions whatsoever and this was exactly what he was doing right now. He didn't remember much from Monday because he was in survival mode back then, but now… He didn't know how to start describing what was going on, but he loved it nonetheless.

Ace's advantage of having a weapon didn't last very long, the staff was ripped from his hands and thrown aside, he didn't bother to look where it went. There was no time to do that – if he looked away from Marco even for a fraction of a second, he would instantly lose. He knew it when he challenged sempai that his opponent was stronger than him but he would not go down easily. Especially not when that thing finally decided to show up.

Despite Ace's resolve, his back hit a big tree seconds after it appeared. What surprised him was his lack of surprise when Marco crushed his lips against Ace's, kissing him heatedly. Absolutely light-headed from the fight, Ace's dizzy mind didn't even react to the fact that he was being kissed by a guy, only a quick thought 'Nami, you liar!' passed before he completely melted, kissing back just as passionately.

With a low, rumbling sound Marco pressed his whole body against Ace, making the latter gasp at the sheer intensity of the feeling. The blond immediately used the gasp to his advantage, invading Ace's mouth with his tongue, exploring the hot cavern. Ace far from minded that, his own tongue entwining Marco's enthusiastically, his hands sneaking around the blond's neck. Marco's hands slid under the raven's t-shirt, mapping the firm abs and slowly climbing higher.

Ace had no idea what was going on, but he wasn't going to argue, especially not when sempai pressed their hips together, making him moan loudly. Marco stiffened, breaking the kiss and trying to move away from Ace, but he was having none of that, forcing their mouths back together with a soft needy whine. For a moment sempai was unresponsive, then, with a desperate groan, he kissed Ace back, his hands dropping down to his hips.

* * *

**Yeah, I'm finishing right there. **

**I bet you've already forgotten about the little game I started :D Anyway, here comes clues:**

**1\. There's a reference to this same tv-show in chapter one of this very fic.**  
**2\. It has a lot of seasons (more than four).**  
**3\. It started 2005.**  
**4\. My two favourite character's initials are C.Y. and M.B. or vice versa, the first letter being name. **  
**5\. The line used here is used in an earlier season (yeah, not even I remember which) while all of five were still alive.**  
**6\. I don't have any fics with this show in any of my lists.**

**I don't want to give much away, but if nobody could crack it, I'll be adding some more clues in the next chappie. Gold star for the person who could tell who's saying this line.**

**Thanks a lot for all reviews, favs and follows.**

**Hope to see you soon,**

**~Rhe.**


	10. Thursday (Part 1)

**Sup!**  
**So this should have been published last week if not for unfortunate loss of internet I suffered last Monday after a storm. Worst week of my life, if you ask me... **

**Anyhow, the answer to the little contest from last chapter is Greys Anatomy and the first person who got it was LeiaGrey who sent me a PM. She will appear in the next chapter (or the one after that, I'm not sure if I'll manage to squeeze her in someplace next chappie).**

**Oh, fun fact. While I was browsing FF from my phone, I found a story called Seven Days in NaruSasu fandom (yeah, I was that bored). I started reading it, but it turned out that the author was just writing the manga down, changing the names of the characters and I have to say that I liked mine better XD **

**Still beta'ed by aqua-empress... I should be embarrased that I still don't know how to spell the name and have to check every time.**

**Disclaimer: not mine.**

**Song of the chapter:_ The Lion's Roar_ by _First Aid Kit_.**

**PS. Some of you might hate me for this chapter, hehehe XD**

* * *

Marco tried to suffocate himself with one of his pillows. This was ridiculous. He refused to believe that yesterday really happened. Marco stifled a moan, turning around and trying the other pillow, in case it worked better for his suicidal ideas. His alarm was going to ring in ten minutes and that meant getting up and going to school and, most likely, meet Ace… Marco started banging his head against the pillow, cursing anything and everything.

He noticed that Ace acted weirdly when they left the bandits, but didn't pay much attention to it, especially not when Ace was climbing right in front of him, providing an amazing view of that ass of his… Marco covered his head with the first pillow, hoping that two pillows would work better. When they climbed up and when Ace turned around, his cock twitched with interest at the way his kouhai was looking at him. Then… He had no explanation or excuse for what happened next. Marco tried to stop, but when Ace whined and pulled him back, he blanked out completely and when dry-humping Ace into a tree wasn't enough he actually tried to take his kouhai's jeans off. Fortunately Ace came around and successfully prevented it, but Marco wasn't able to look him in the eye after that. As if that wasn't enough, his stupid brain kept replaying each and every second of that all the way to his house and, to make things even better, he spent the whole night reliving that moment in the woods.

The alarm went off and Marco jumped, staring at it in absolute horror. He hesitantly moved his hand and turned it off and rolled on his back with a desperate sigh. The thing worse than encountering Ace at school was the fact that Robin would know right after seeing his face. Add Ace's reaction (whatever it may be, though Marco seriously suspected that he'll run away the second he'll notice him) and it would be disturbingly clear. Even for the people who weren't Robin.

He literally rolled of the bed, falling on the floor in hopes of breaking something that might grant him a day away from school. Yeah, Marco could easily admit that he was a coward if that gave him a day off or, at the very least, teleported him to Antarctica. At least there won't be any incredibly fuckable kouhais and overly perceptive friends. Just some penguins and some crazy researchers.

Marco got up from the floor and started to get dressed, completely ignoring his bulging problem. He sighed, shaking his head at another issue – his obvious lack of any kind of self-restraint. It seemed like it just packed and left for vacation on the Bahamas at the beginning of this week, taking his common sense with it for company. Rolling his eyes at his own stupidity, Marco went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He did that automatically as he stared at himself in the mirror, his bored reflection glaring back.

He rinsed his mouth and, after a final look into the mirror, he… Hold your horses. What the fuck was that? Marco stopped and carefully pulled away his collar, already knowing the answer. There, just above his left collarbone, was an angry red mark. He felt blush slowly creeping up his face, so he quickly covered the mark and hastily left the bathroom. He had no idea when that happened, mostly because… Marco shook his head violently. 'Bad idea, don't think about Ace,' he told himself.

Snatching his bag from the chair in his room, Marco went downstairs to the kitchen, trying to make as much noise as possible. As expected, he couldn't be even half as loud as Ace's brother, but, apparently, loud enough for seven of his brothers to tell him to stop making such a ruckus in such God forsaken hour. According to the clock it was only half past six, which Marco pointed out to each and every one who told him to be quiet. Seven out of seven told him to stick it and be quiet.

In the kitchen were Pops and Thatch, two only morning persons in their household. Even Marco (despite waking up early every day) hated mornings with a passion. He dropped his bag on one of the chairs around a small table for six (it was small compared to the table in the dining room which could have all of them sit down and eat at the same time) and went to the fridge to get some milk for cereal and coffee.

"Morning, kiddo," Pops said from behind his paper.

"Morning," Marco closed the fridge, located both cereal and milk on the table and went to get himself a bowl and a spoon.

"Do I need to know?" Pops asked, pointedly looking at Marco's knuckles. The blond looked at them as well, his hands looked much better than yesterday and, since he came home quite late, he didn't have to explain anything to Pops then.

"Er… Not really, no," Marco sat down and poured himself some breakfast.

"You would tell me if there was something wrong, right?"

"Yes," Marco nodded.

"You came home pretty late yesterday," Thatch said.

"Is there a curfew I'm not aware of?" Marco smirked.

"No, I'm just curious what you did yesterday, normally you'd be home relatively early and either occupy the couch or mull over your homework," Thatch countered.

"Just hung out with some friends," Marco shrugged.

"Friends, you say?" Thatch leaned over the table to pull Marco's collar away, but he caught his brother's hand before he could do so.

"Yes, friends," Marco glared at Thatch.

"If you say so," his brother sat back down with a laugh.

Marco rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair to reach for a mug to pour himself some coffee to the sound of Pops' chuckling at the antics of his sons.

"Will we get to meet these 'friends' of yours?" Thatch teased, receiving a glare from Marco instead of an answer. If Thatch noticed the mark quickly, it would take Robin about 0.001 second to do that as well and, given that she knew Marco very well as well as who he was dating this week, he was going to be interrogated thoroughly. Or not, depending on her mood she could just ask Ace 'a couple of questions'…

Marco sighed into his mug, becoming gloomier by the second. How the hell could he have lost control in a way that he didn't notice that he was marked? Granted, he wouldn't have noticed anything at all at that time because his brain didn't get enough blood for obvious reasons, but he had never gone so far as to leave marks on the person he was dating, much less allow _them_ to mark _him._ He didn't doubt the fact that he marked Ace at all, in fact he was sure that Ace had a lot more than a single mark above his collarbone.

(^_^)

Ace was not trying to drown himself in his sink. Really, he wasn't. He just held his breath with his face in the sink full of cold water. The fact that he woke up before his alarm could be one of the signs of apocalypse approaching. He got lucky yesterday because his narcolepsy knocked him out the second his head touched the pillow because otherwise he wouldn't have been able to fall asleep.

He wasn't having an identity crisis, because, compared to what was troubling him, it was minor and insignificant. So what if he had the hottest make-out session ever with a guy yesterday? Who didn't? Take Zoro, for example. He was a runner-up for the hottest person in the school (with around 1000 students as his competition) and he had a boyfriend. And not just any boyfriend, it was Sanji, who, according to himself, was as straight as a very straight thing.

Ace surfaced, shaking his head and panting. No, the gender of the person didn't matter at all. What mattered, though, was who that person was. Ace glared at himself in the mirror. No, the gender didn't matter. Why would it if he was kissed within an inch of his life by Phoenix Marco! As in, officially the hottest person in the entire school, his judo captain and… yes, his boyfriend for the week. Ace immediately became bright red in the face. Yeah, he wasn't trying to drown himself in his sink.

With a sigh Ace repeated the procedure. After a short moment with his face in the water, he surfaced again and wiped his face with the towel he had around his neck. Ace slowly patted his face, stopping when his fingers reached his chin. He carefully moved the towel from around his neck and the effect was instantaneous – his face lit up like a Christmas tree, becoming tomato red in a second. Resisting the urge to repeat the unhelpful procedure, Ace forced himself to 'survey the damage'. Not one, not two, but six, SIX angry red marks on his neck. Where the fuck was Sabo with his make-up artist when Ace needed them? Right, not here.

With annoyed growl Ace pulled out the plug, draining the water. He then went to his room, angrily throwing the towel on a chair. He had to come up with a plan, one that would make him stay as far from sempai as possible because he wasn't sure if he'd survive any more humiliation. Yesterday was more than enough and if Nami and Robin would get any more crazy ideas, he'd just tell them to stick it. It worked for Zoro, why wouldn't it work for him?

Making sure that the coast was clear, Ace climbed under the table and took out his secret stash. It consisted mostly of candy and hiding in the city library doing homework sounded like a plan to him, so Ace quickly transferred some of the candy into his bag and hid the stash carefully. He didn't know why, but if he ate candy while studying everything made sense and stuck in his brain for a long time.

When Ace came downstairs Luffy was already waiting for him eagerly, so Ace went to the fridge to see what he could quickly throw together.

"You were at Dadan's yesterday?" Luffy asked.

"Yeah," after assessing the fridge Ace decided to quickly make some sandwiches, he wasn't in the mood to do anything more complicated.

"I can see that, there are some big-ass mosquitos in that forest," Luffy nodded.

"What?" Ace frowned, confused.

"Your neck, those were some giant mosquitos," Luffy pointed at the subject of the conversation.

"You have no idea," Ace muttered with a roll of his eyes. If only his friends at school would think those were mosquito bites.

"I do have an idea! How about we eat meat?"

"What is it about you and meat?" Ace sighed, the question was rhetorical, but Luffy answered it anyway:

"It's awesome!"

"Can't argue with that," Ace muttered.

"Right?" Luffy laughed loudly, making Ace extremely envious – his brother had probably only one thing on his mind – meat, and didn't have to worry about anything else, for example that he had to face a super-hot sempai (this had nothing to do with recent events, ask anyone at school, male or female, the answer would be just the same) with whom he got 'extra friendly' yesterday (that's to put it mildly).

(^_^)

Getting school was just short of painful. Marco half expected for Robin to pop up from behind some corner and give him that stupid all-knowing smile that Marco started to hate lately. Normally he didn't have any problem with the fact that he didn't have to speak in order for her to understand, in fact he liked it, but now, when he wanted some privacy, it was annoying as hell. He literally sneaked through school corridors wary of every single dark-haired female and male (which was about half the school) fully aware that this kind of paranoid behaviour was a) not like him, b) ridiculous and c) suspicious.

It turned out that he was paranoid for no reason at all – Robin came slightly late (which happened whenever they had a new exhibit at the museum her mom worked at) and Ace was nowhere to be seen. At least not where Marco walked, which was lucky. A thing that slipped Marco's mind (with all that internal digging and paranoia) was that his friend's attentive behaviour changed drastically whenever the new exhibit appeared - Robin was so excited about all the new artefacts that she didn't care about whatever was bothering Marco, too busy reading in some history book that seemed to weigh a ton. He didn't even try to talk to her, knowing that he'll be completely ignored.

Marco's resolve of being caffeine free for at least half a day crumbled right after his chemistry lesson, mostly because the teacher had extremely soothing voice, lulling the class into a sleepy haze. His reason for refusing caffeine was simple – whenever he went to cafeteria Ace was bound to be there somewhere, but unless he wanted to fall asleep in math he really needed that coffee. Even Robin put away her book with a sigh and tagged along with the rest of the class on their pilgrimage to the cafeteria despite being one of the tough ones.

To be honest, Marco had only a vague idea as to why he was avoiding Ace. Alright, he knew exactly why he was trying to avoid his kouhai and why he was right in the middle of the pack that his classmates formed. Because he didn't know what to expect. Not only that, he didn't know if he should expect anything or even why he was expecting something. He was disoriented and confused and he knew exactly why – this was not his usual weekly routine. Heck, nothing about this week was usual, not the person he was dating nor what they did and definitely not the behaviour. Forget his own lack of control, Marco never knew what to expect from Ace because whenever he thought he knew something Ace proved him wrong every single time.

He retreated from the cafeteria as soon as he got his coffee, hyper aware of his surroundings because Ace tended to run into him in the vicinity of the cafeteria. That didn't happen this time, leaving Marco's day relatively Ace-free so far. He still wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad thing, despite being fully aware that he couldn't avoid his kouhai forever and sooner or later they'll run into each other (if not today, or even tomorrow, they still had training on Saturday). A giant part of Marco really hoped it'll be later rather than sooner and the smaller part scowled at him for being such a paranoid coward.

Still wary of everyone around him Marco made his way back to his homeroom, closely followed by Robin. Next lesson was double math and both Marco and Robin were in the advanced class, like most of their classmates so that they didn't have to change the classroom. It was one of Marco's favourite subjects probably because math came naturally to him and he didn't have to work on it as much as, for example, biology. In fact it was so easy for him that the teacher had to give him university level material because he finished the textbook the class worked with sometime last year. He would have been proud if not for the fact that Robin could easily substitute the history teacher. The problem with that was that Marco was very ambitious and competitive and, seeing that Robin left him biting the dust when it came to how good they were at their best subjects, it pissed him off. It made little sense because Robin was going to study history after graduation and he wasn't planning on being math professor in some university ten years from now, but it left him feeling like he was in second place and Marco hated being second. What more, Robin knew about Marco's 'little' competitive streak and often teased him about it.

Since today seemed to be on Marco's side so far, the math wasn't hard to do. Although it might have had something to do with the fact that he came at it as if it personally offended his family. Even the teacher was surprised when he stopped to check how Marco was doing.

"Are you planning on finish this book today?" the teacher asked with a smile.

"No?" Marco answered as he quickly scribbled down numbers and checked if the answer was correct.

"Sure looks that way. You are sure you don't want to study math after graduation?"

"I have no intention to do that whatsoever," Marco didn't even look up from his textbook – this wasn't the first time the teacher asked that and he suspected that it won't be the last.

"I just want you to think about it."

"I already did. Math won't make money," it wasn't the first time Marco answered that.

"Just think about it."

"Mhm."

Marco rolled his eyes when the teacher moved on to check on other students. If anything, the teacher was persistent because he's been pestering Marco about it probably since he started at Enies Lobby. And he wasn't trying to finish the book, he was just… focusing on something instead of a very frustrating kouhai. Because, unlike math, he did not understand Ace at all.

Marco clenched his pencil angrily – his mind was running in circles. It wasn't only Ace he did not understand, he had hard time trying to figure himself out. Why did he kiss Ace yesterday? It would have been a totally different story if the raven started it, but no, he was the one who kissed Ace first, not the other way around. Marco glared at his textbook, scribbling away angrily. Why would he do that? He never started anything - they always did. So why?

(^_^)

So far luck was on Ace's side. He didn't catch even a glimpse of Marco-sempai and Nami, the only prying friend, was too busy trying to kill Luffy whose survival instincts told him to stay away from his girlfriend. Therefore the red head spent the breaks chasing his brother all over the school since, apparently, she didn't manage to kill Luffy yesterday. Still, she managed to give Ace a minute of her time when he accused her of lying to him.

"I didn't lie to you!" Nami said indignantly.

"I beg to differ," Ace said stubbornly.

"What did I lie to you about?" that question received a glare for an answer – there was no way in hell Ace could tell her. When Nami didn't get another answer, she said: "Alright, if you don't want to talk, let me ask you one thing. Would whatever I lied to you about bring me money?"

"Um…" Ace thought about it for a moment. Unless she made a bet, the whole situation from yesterday wasn't profitable to his friend. "I don't think so," he finally answered.

"Then I didn't lie to you. I would only lie or twist the facts around for money," after stating this Nami left, determined to kill his little brother. Ace didn't bother to try to stop her – Luffy brought this on himself so he should get out of it by himself. Kind of like Ace tried to get himself out of this whole mess.

Nami's words confused him even more. If what she said yesterday was true, then yesterday made no sense at all. Nami clearly stated that sempai never touched anyone first which was ridiculous because Ace definitely didn't start the whole yesterday thing. He could be blamed for escalation of the whole situation, but not for starting it. All he wanted was to fight not to get kissed senseless. If Nami was telling the truth and her information was confirmed (and it always was, after all she was the best information broker in the entire school) yesterday shouldn't have happened. Something didn't add up here, Ace thought with a frown on his face.

If Nami was telling the truth (and Ace tended to trust Nami to do that) then yesterday was a mistake. He could see why – sometimes he got excited from fighting too and, well, it was a really, really good fight yesterday and the excitement took a wrong turn somewhere so that it turned out like that. Ace nodded to himself, finally setting everything straight in his head. Sempai didn't mean to kiss him, it just happened in the heat of the fight, adrenaline going the wrong way… Therefore he should just ignore the whole accident and act as though nothing happened.

Content with the result of his internal struggle, Ace decided that he wouldn't avoid sempai and hide in his classroom anymore. Still, he should go to the library anyway – he was getting behind on his homework and he really had to do it. With that in mind Ace went to the cafeteria – thankfully he still had time to get himself a cup of coffee before next lesson. He half expected to run into sempai somewhere there but, oddly enough, that didn't happen. Ace just shrugged it off – it's not like sempai would be there whenever he decided to get coffee. The more Ace thought about it, the more he saw that this whole week was a giant coincidence that started on Monday and just went on. Ace just shook his head with a smile at that.

Apparently, he was way luckier than he suspected. His last lesson got cancelled due to their teacher being ill, who just gave the pages for them to read until the next lesson. Definitely not in a hurry, Ace wrote the pages down and gathered his things. Then he had to make a stop by his locker to get part of the homework he had to do. Taking his time, Ace shuffled through his books. When he finally got the books he needed, Ace slowly made his way out of the school. The corridors were empty due to the fact that the bell rung only a moment ago.

Realising that he'd probably need a snack Ace took out his wallet to check for cash and swore – the coin department was open and the stupid coins scattered all over the floor. Muttering curses under his breath he dropped his bag and started to pick up his money. This definitely proved that whatever good luck he had today needed to be evened out with some bad luck to keep things in balance.

Ace huffed as he tried to reach the coins that rolled under the lockers when his 'balance of good and bad' theory was tested once again when someone tripped over Ace's legs and fell down, voicing a string of curses that, in a teacher's presence, would have earned that person a week worth of detentions. Ace got out from under the lockers with his money in his hand and looked at the unfortunate person. Then…

"Hahahahaha!" he laughed loudly.

"What's so funny?" Marco-sempai asked with a discontent frown, sitting on the floor and glaring at Ace.

"Now Usopp can't say anything 'cause I didn't run you over," Ace managed to say through laughter.

Sempai chuckled a bit as well.

"What are you doing?"

"I dropped money all over the place," Ace said, showing the coins in his hand with a wide grin.

"Do you always finish this early?" Marco asked – it was rare for second years to finish at this time because there were more lessons during the second year so that third year was relatively free for students to concentrate on their future, namely finding a nice university or job and get ready for the finals.

"Nope, my last lesson got cancelled. I'm going to the library to do some homework. Do you wanna tag along?" Ace asked casually, remembering his chosen course of action. Yesterday was a mistake. Nothing happened yesterday.

* * *

**Ahem... Yeah... *hides under her bed***

**Thanks for all the reviews, favs and follows. **

**Hope to see you soon,**  
**~Rhe.**


	11. Thursday (Part 2)

**'Sup!**

**So here's the update and I mentioned this in some other stories - important note in my profile. LeiaGrey, sorry, you're up for the next chapter.**

**Disclaimer: do I still need to put it here?**

**Beta'ed by aqua-empress and yes, I still have to check the spelling.**

**Song of the chapter: _Pony_****_ (It's OK)_ by _Erin McCarley_**

**Oh, right, nearly forgot it. This story has almost 100 follows! I'm eternally gratefull to everybody for the support you've shown. And, by the way, previous chapter got whole 19 reviews - the most so far - thank you so very much!**

* * *

Something was definitely wrong with this picture. Marco knew that he didn't know what to expect from Ace after yesterday, but he expected something. Anything! Not a shitload of nothing at all! He glared at his kouhai from the corner of his eye, checking if nothing changed into anything. Like hell it did, the idiot cheerfully led the way to the city library not bothered in the slightest, as if he didn't have his whole neck covered in red marks. Marco bit his cheek in a futile attempt to gain control over his emotions. Why was he so angry anyway? Ah, right, because he wasn't used to being ignored, especially not by the person he was supposed to be dating for a week.

Marco took a calming breath, maintaining his mask of perfect boredom. At least outside he looked normal, well, aside from glares he threw at his kouhai from time to time. And while he was at it, why the fuck was he coming along to the library? Wasn't he supposed to get home quickly just so this very thing wouldn't happen? He sighed, his common sense fighting with his desire to kick something. Or someone. And himself, while he was at it.

With another sigh Marco looked up the magnificent old building that was the city library. When he came here with Robin one time, she gave him a whole lecture about the building, but he only remembered that the building was raised early 1800. He also knew that Haruta and Izo loved playing hide-and-seek inside the library which was so big it had four storeys and two wings apart from the central part. That's without the basement.

Inside the library Marco almost walked into his kouhai when he made a sharp turn to the right heading in general direction of the old archives. To get access to them one needed to have some kind of special permission which Marco didn't, but, apparently, Ace had, using a card and a passcode to get into the south wing of the library. Since the south wing was off limits for anyone who didn't have that permit, it was Marco's first time entering it. He was almost disappointed that it looked like the rest of the library albeit a little bit dustier.

"How did you get the card?" Marco asked curiously as Ace led the way up the stairs.

"Huh? You mean you're friends with Robin and you don't have one?" Ace turned around to look at him in disbelief.

"I don't go to the library very often…" he said, slightly defensive. "Usually I study at home."

"You missed a lot," Ace shook his head at Marco and continued up the stairs. "This is the very best place to study – tons of extra material, kitchenette on the fourth floor with free coffee and a microwave plus there are only a handful of those who are here during daytime – the history nerds usually get here around half past six in the evening."

"Sounds like you come here often."

"Mostly on weekends or when my homework is threatening to bury me," Ace shrugged casually. "Or when the historical society does something interesting, like last month they had this 'night at the library' thing when they came here at night, got all dressed up and had a treasure hunt around the whole library."

"Why haven't I heard anything about it? Wouldn't there be some kind of poster announcing the event?" Marco said indignantly – it actually sounded fun and he would have participated if he knew about it.

"Oh, that wasn't a public event, only the people who were supposed to know about it knew about it," Ace raised his hand up with the permit card between his fingers with a smug grin on his face.

"What? Unfair! How do I get one?"

"You see, they have this probation period of four months when you have to come to every single meeting of the historical society during those four months. Every single one," Ace clearly enjoyed the situation, because there was no way that Marco could afford to come to every meeting with his schoolwork. After looking at his discontent face for a minute Ace added: "But, since you're my friend and since I'm allowed to bring friends with me, I can write you a line whenever they'll be having any fun events."

They finally got to the fourth floor and Ace led the way to what looked like cabins formed by moving the bookshelves. Inside those cabins were tables for four people and four chairs. All in all there were eight cabins and Ace waved to the people sitting in one cabin as they went to the very last one to their right. Ace didn't seem to plan on staying there for long, he just dumped his bag on the table and turned around.

"Where are you going?" Marco asked – he felt slightly out of place and did not want to explain to personnel who the hell he was in case anyone decided to check if he had a permit.

"Bathroom. And then to get some coffee," his kouhai answered.

"I'm coming with you – you can show me where the bathroom is," he quickly said.

"This way," Ace nodded, going back to the stairs.

They passed the stairs and a long row of bookcases until they came out to a larger place with giant windows that was used for lectures, judging by several rows of chairs and a small podium. To the left of the lecture space was the kitchenette and even from where he stood Marco could see a full coffee pot. Somehow that sight made him happier, especially after he remembered that it was free of charge.

Ace went right into a small corridor between bookshelves and a wall, turning then left and disappearing. Marco followed him curiously and found several doors with a tell-tale sign of WC on all of them. He nodded to himself and went back to the lecture hall. There he moved to explore the kitchenette, checking the cupboards for mugs and anything he could possibly use with coffee. Marco long since stopped denying that he was a caffeine junkie – a day without a morning coffee (at the very least) left him potentially dangerous to anyone who tried to talk to him. He actually tried to refrain from drinking it when he had a break from school, but after three days Haruta came to him with a mug full of coffee as a peace offering. Marco suspected that she was sent because she was a girl and that he wouldn't harm their only sister.

Filling his mug with some free coffee, Marco couldn't help but smile at the memory – after he got his peace offering and Haruta left the room, he heard her tell somebody (most likely all their brothers) that next time they should find someone else to placate the monster. He was slightly offended by the fact that he was called a monster, but he also knew that at times he had really bad temper and several of his brothers still remembered the time when that was his only mood. Apparently, that temper resurfaced with the lack of coffee.

(^_^)

Ace was hiding in the bathroom, staring at himself in the mirror and feeling like Leo DiCaprio. Namely that he should have gotten an Oscar for his acting skills. The effort he put down to keep a straight face and act perfectly normal should have gotten him 'actor of the year' award. Though there was a problem – unfortunately he couldn't hide in the bathroom forever and had to come out eventually. Why he invited sempai to tag along to the library was beyond him. He knew he had his less than bright moments, but this was a whole new level.

With a sigh Ace left the bathroom and went to the kitchenette, praying to God that Marco-sempai went back to cabin they left their thing in. He had no such luck – sempai stood by the window, looking down at the street. He seemed to have already helped himself to some coffee. Ace chuckled at the sight – apparently sempai was just as bad as him, although he only drank coffee to stay awake, but that led to him drinking up to ten cups a day. Ace knew that he couldn't take some of his medicine if he drank coffee, but those pills didn't help anyway. The only thing that could successfully keep him awake was caffeine.

"What?" Marco-sempai turned to him.

"Nothing," Ace replied with a smile, muttering 'junkie' under his breath.

"Look who's talking," sempai retorted, amusement evident in his voice.

"I'm not a junkie," Ace protested. "This… is medicine," he found himself a mug and poured coffee into it.

"Right, and I'm a flying monkey," Marco replied sceptically.

"You want to see my prescription?"

"You actually have a prescription that says you're supposed to drink coffee?"

"Nope. I have one that prescribed me caffeine."

"You are serious?"

"Yup. Although the pills I got are too weak, so I drink coffee instead," Ace explained, fixing his coffee to his taste by adding milk and sugar.

"What do you have again?"

"Narcolepsy. It's actually pretty nice, gives me a valid excuse to sleep during lessons," he said, but after seeing Marco's expression he corrected himself: "Not that I can control it in any way. It is annoying as hell when it happens during tests - I have to retake them after classes."

"It's hard being you," sempai chuckled. "I wonder how you're going to work in the future."

Ace's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, despite knowing that sempai joked. He did not like to be reminded about the place he was going to work in after he was done with high school and university. Everything was decided for him, he had no choice in the matter whatsoever. Sabo was more okay with the fact that everything was decided for him, despite his constant arguments with his father, but Ace did not even have anyone to argue with. Sensing Ace's anger, Marco raised a hand in a calming gesture:

"Hey, I didn't mean to offend you - I was just joking."

"Sorry, this has nothing to do with you, I just remembered something," Ace shook his head. He shook his head again, trying to drive the unpleasant thoughts away before he snapped and took his anger out on sempai. That would neither help him nor make him feel better.

Marco-sempai nodded hesitantly, clearly unconvinced, but said nothing, choosing to follow Ace back to their cubicle. However when they passed the taken cubicle, someone called:

"Perfect timing! Ace, come here!"

Ace halted, turned around and entered the taken cubicle where the usual Galley-La gang sat. There were four of them – Lucci, a cold guy who told Sabo to go fuck himself when he tried to enlist him in his squad of models, Kaku, a guy who could be mistaken for Usopp because of his long nose, Kalifa, a tall blonde who accused Sabo of sexual harassment when he tried to enlist her, and Paulie, who refused the offer once he got to know that he probably would have to pose with half-naked women. Ace knew them through Robin who knew them because Lucci was her ex. All four went to Galley-La High that wasn't too far from Enies Lobby High both geographically and ranking-wise.

"What's up?" Ace asked as he leaned on the table.

"Can you help us with this? We have a test tomorrow and it's definitely going to be on it, but not even Lucci gets it," Paulie explained, giving Ace a textbook.

Ace put down his mug and accepted the book. He looked at what they were showing him feeling that he should be understanding it, but he didn't. It looked like complete gibberish. Just in case, Ace looked at the cover of the textbook and cringed – it was the very same book he got to dump on Monday.

"I wish I could help you, I really do, but this is way beyond me. I am no math genius," he said with a sigh, giving the book back to Paulie.

"Crap, what are we supposed to do now?" Paulie frowned in discontent.

"May I?" Marco-sempai reached for the book.

"Be our guest," Kaku said sceptically.

"Ace, can you please move?" Marco-sempai unceremoniously pushed Ace off the table, fearlessly took Lucci's copybook and his pen and opened the copybook on a blank page.

For the next ten minutes Ace stared in wonder as sempai easily solved the problems explaining stuff as he wrote in Lucci's copybook. What more, the way Marco explained actually made him think 'hey, I think I get this'. It also made him remember all the times he thought he was going to get an aneurism before he understood anything in that blasted textbook.

"Where the hell were you and your math abilities before?" Ace asked when Marco finished explaining.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I hate you," Ace said with a sigh, taking both their, now empty, mugs to return them to the kitchenette.

"What? Why?" sempai asked, surprised.

"I just do," he replied. Sometimes life was downright unfair, giving all-in-one package to some people. To others it just gave parts of the package, leaving them to drown. Not that Ace could complain, he was a lot better off than some people, but if he could choose, he would rather be in top ten in the academic ranking in their school than the popularity ranking. Still, if he got to choose between that and nothing, he'd rather be known for something than nothing at all. Still, life was unfair – guess who was ranked first in the academic ranking? The same frigging person who was ranked first in the popularity ranking, that's who.

(^_^)

He should have known that this was a bad idea. He should have just said no and went home like he planned. There was only one place in the world that had free cheese and it was a mousetrap. Marco should have remembered it sooner. Half of him suspected that Ace was doing that on purpose, the other half thought that it was some kind of cosmic joke. How was he supposed to know that when Ace asked him if he wanted any candy that his kouhai had a bag full of Chupa-Chupses?! Marco chose to believe that if they were normal sized he wouldn't have had any problem with that, but they were freaking XXL size! It did not help in the least that the first one Ace got his hands on was strawberry flavoured one, because it only made it easier for Marco to imagine a certain part of himself instead of that candy.

Marco took a deep breath as he massaged his temple, doing his best to keep his eyes on the textbook in front of him. He felt like crying – he couldn't get up and go into time-out because if he got up, his state would become very noticeable. If he could glare at Ace without risking utter humiliation, he would have. Marco moved his hand from his temple to his cheek but thankfully it wasn't warm. He had to get away from there to gather his scattered wits before he did something incredibly stupid.

He sneaked a peak at Ace to see if he was watching and immediately regretted it – his kouhai sat in his chair in relaxed manner, forsaken candy still in his hand. It just so happened that when Marco looked at him, he took the Chupa-Chups into his mouth in a way that left nothing to imagination. Marco stared at Ace's mouth completely transfixed, unsure if he wanted to kiss or fuck it. He shook his head in attempt to snap out of it. Suddenly his saving grace came in form of a phone call from Izo that gave Marco a legitimate excuse to abandon the sinking ship of his sanity. Ace barely looked up at him, nodding to his 'Sorry, I have to take this'.

"Hola, mi hermano," Izo said cheerfully – because being suspended got boring quickly, Marco's brother started studying Spanish on his own for fun. Marco's own Spanish vocabulary consisted of a single phrase, which he used:

"Oi, no habla español, English please," Marco said in slightly hushed voice – it was a library after all. He went to that lecture space by the kitchenette in order to not to disturb anyone.

"Right. What are you doing?" Izo's voice was muffled as if he was eating something.

"I'm at the city library, studying. Why?"

"You're no fun. Why are you always studying?"

"Do you need an answer to that?" Marco said meaning that one of the conditions of his scholarship at Enies Lobby was that he kept his grades well above average.

"Right, cause you're boring. Are you with Robin?"

"No, I'm with one of my kouhais, why?" Marco asked, hoping that this time he would get an answer.

"You don't study with your kouhais. Is this one of your 'date for a week' buddies?" Marco could literally see Izo's curiosity meter spike.

"Izo, what do you want?" he asked strictly – he was not going to discuss any of his problems with this particular brother. In fact, the only person Marco would probably be (not that he ever did, but if he felt like it) Robin, mostly because she knew when to keep her mouth shut, unlike any of his brothers.

"I'm bored and you didn't come home when you always do, so I called to see what you're doing and if I could join you, but, I guess, I cannot," came Izo's reply. "Or can I?"

Marco contemplated the suggestion for a minute. Would it be that bad for Izo to come over? Then he realised that he didn't need his brothers see him literally drool all over Ace.

"You are right, you can't. Go walk Stefan or something."

"Can't – Haruta already went out with him like ten minutes ago."

"Why didn't you go with her if you're so bored you called me?" Marco knew that he was way, way too desperate to drag out this conversation – the longer he talked, the longer he could be away from Ace and his stupid habit.

"I didn't think about it then… Can you give me a movie to watch or something?" Izo whined through whatever he was eating at the moment.

"How about I give you some schoolwork to do?" Marco suggested slyly.

"Ok, thanks, bye," Izo quickly hung up on him.

"Too easy," Marco muttered in amusement and then slapped his forehead – if he started discussing movies with Izo, he could easily spend ten more minutes away from Ace. He stared at the phone in contemplation – maybe he should call someone, talk to them about something, anything… Just when he was about to give up and go back, Pops called.

"Yes?" Marco answered suspiciously quickly.

"What's up with you, you never answer a call that quickly," Pops said, noticing the difference immediately.

"I just talked to Izo," Marco said – it wasn't a lie and his eagerness to talk on the phone had nothing to do with anything family related.

"Hm, alright then, what did he want?"

"Something to do. So why are you calling me?"

"Why are you talking so quietly?"

"I'm at the library," Marco explained – he unconsciously talked more quietly than necessary.

"Ah, so you're studying. Then I'll call Izo, give him something to do. Break a leg."

Marco stared at his phone in confusion – he got hung up on for the second time in less than five minutes. Steeling himself for what he was about to face again, he slowly walked back to the cubicle he and Ace occupied. He was thoroughly tempted to turn around and use the bathroom as an excuse but he reminded himself that he was not supposed to be coward (a part of him argued that this wasn't cowardice but a necessary precaution in order to avoid any more sexual frustration) and walked into the cubicle.

"Thank God," he mouthed when he found Ace unconscious with his face in the book he was reading and that damned candy nowhere to be seen.

Marco was about to go to his seat when he got an idea. It was stupid, childish, below him, but brilliant. As quietly as he could, he walked over to Ace's bag and opened it soundlessly. There, in the main compartment, were candies that came from the hell itself, designed to rob him of whatever sanity he had left. Quickly (and quietly), Marco stole the Chupa-Chupses and sneaked back to his spot to put the stolen candy in his bag. 'Mission completed', he thought happily. Well on time too, because in a moment Ace stirred, scaring him at first.

"Ouch…" the raven muttered; Marco kept pinching his own leg under the table to keep the creepy happy smile away from his face. "I hate tables… Oh, you're back."

"Mhm," Marco nodded, closing his bag inconspicuously.

He should not have been surprised that the first thing Ace did was to look into his own bag.

"There goes my supply of glucose… Stupid blond bastard…" Ace muttered under his breath, making Marco go cold.

"Excuse me?" he asked, wearing his best 'I have no idea what you're talking about' face.

"Ah, it's not you, it's Paulie!" Ace waved his hands. "He always steals my candy and I'm way too lazy to chase him around to get it back."

Marco nodded, eternally grateful to whichever woman that gave birth to Paulie. And to Paulie as well for stealing all the Chupa-Chupses before so that no one became suspicious of him. Ace, however, was not pleased with the whole thing.

"How am I supposed to think now?" he muttered angrily, glaring in general direction of Paulie's location.

Before Ace could get up and confront the man Marco unknowingly framed, Marco hastily offered:

"Gum? At least it's better for your teeth," he turned to his bag again, thankfully the pack was in outer pocket, so he did not need to open the bag and risk revealing himself as a culprit.

"Thanks," Ace said, accepting the pack. Marco let out a breath he was holding, feeling like it was a very close one for his mental health. At least he learned his lesson – no more study sessions with Ace, at least not while there were any Chupa-Chupses anywhere in approximate vicinity.

* * *

**I hope you liked this chapter, it was both fun and a pain to write :D This scene has been in my head for quite some time, it's nice to see it written down :D**

**Thank you for all the reviews, favs and follows!**

**I really hope to see you guys soon, but unfortunatly I can't promise that. Thus, until next time,**

**~Rhe.**


	12. Thursday (Part 3)

**'Sup!**

**What can I say? So far med school feels like you are thrown out in the middle of an ocean, shown the direction to swim in and told that you will get your life vest when you get to the shore. So far I'm still floating XD**

**I would like to thank everyone for their support - I never expected this story to get 100+ follows, so thank you so much. I also want to thank lunarshores - she helped me make this chapter better because original version sucked. **

**LeiaGray - you are up :) Also, this chappie is one day late for Marco's b-day :D**

**Disclaimer: if I owned it, would I be writing ffs?**

**Song of the chapter: _Demons_ by _Imagine Dragons_.**

* * *

All in all, studying with Marco-sempai was nice. It certainly helped that sempai was a year ahead of him and had already done what Ace was working on before. At first, sempai seemed tense, but after a while, he relaxed, so Ace thought that it must have to do with the fact that sempai normally studied on his own. It also turned out that Marco-sempai had the same gift as Sabo: namely, whatever he explained made a lot of sense. Ace even had the treacherous thought that if he could arrange frequent study sessions with Marco-sempai, he could actually return to the advanced math class. Hell, he could get into advanced everything if sempai agreed to tutor him. Ace could not possibly ask him to do that, though, because it would have been extremely selfish of him.

Not that he didn't consider the possibility – he spent almost half an hour staring at Marco-sempai, warring with himself. He could ask for help with math first and then, whenever he needed help, he could say 'By the way, I have some trouble with this, can you help me?' That's where he stopped himself, realising that he would be exploiting sempai's kindness. Then he changed his train of thought to that he should probably make an offer of this being a part-time job for sempai – the deal wouldn't be bad: sempai could study his own things, only breaking if Ace needed something explained. The problem with that would be that Ace knew himself pretty well, and spending that much time with him would make Marco-sempai want to puke the second he'd see Ace's face.

Finally, annoyed by the staring, sempai got up, saying that he was going to get some coffee. Ace stayed in his place, fully aware that if he followed sempai to do the same thing (something he's been thinking about for a while now), he'd just get punched in the face. Thus he waited for sempai to come back before he did the exact same thing.

"You know you could have just told me, and I would have gotten you one too," Marco-sempai said, taking a sip and returning his gaze to his advanced physics book.

"I don't trust people with my coffee - they tend to bring me decaff just for the fun of it," Ace answered with a half-truth – Sabo had done that more than once, and his school friends were guilty of it as well.

"There is only one coffee machine here, how could I possibly do that?" sempai looked at Ace, clearly putting him in the 'paranoid people' category.

"There's decaff in the drawers All you need to do is to boil some water," he said slightly defensively.

After a moment of consideration, sempai finally spoke:

"Either you spend too much time with Robin, or you have too many friends that are just like her."

"Both, I think," Ace answered with a smile. "But do tell."

"Tell what?"

"Why would you of all people be paranoid of Robin?"

Marco laughed loudly at that, but stopped quickly, covering his mouth with his hand to keep the laughter on manageable level. Ace looked at him with curiosity – he certainly didn't expect sempai to laugh instead of denying it or waving it off.

"I am not paranoid of Robin. I just think she's too damn good at reading people," sempai answered when he stopped laughing, "Plus she's scary when she's curious."

"You can say that again," Ace muttered into his cup.

"Do tell," Marco sempai said slyly.

"All I have to say is that she once came along to Dadan's, and now they have a 'Robin is coming' panic signal to be able to escape and disperse," Ace said darkly.

"And they say that women gossip a lot," a very familiar voice said suddenly.

"Robin!" Ace's face involuntarily split into gigantic smile – he was actually very fond of her, almost to the point of considering her his sister. Despite all her scary tendencies. "Why aren't you at the museum?"

"I just came here to get a book, and Hocha said you were here, so I decided to say hi," Robin answered. "Though I have to say, I definitely did not anticipate Marco when she said you had company."

"Speaking of which, why doesn't he have the card?" Ace couldn't help but notice that sempai pretended that he was a part of the original library design.

"You don't?" Robin turned to sempai, who definitely did not appreciate extra attention.

"No," Marco replied shortly.

"Alright then, I'll ask the curator to do a small favour for me," Robin said to sempai with a smile Ace knew all too well – the scary 'I know what you did last summer' smile. "Ace, are you meeting Sabo anytime soon?"

"Yeah, tomorrow," Ace answered, slightly wary of Robin now.

"Tell him to swing by museum during weekend; he'll like this one. I'll be there, so tell him to drop a line when he arrives," Robin said it to Ace, but it looked like she and sempai had a silent dialogue between them. She looked smug and sempai looked pretty defensive, as if Robin caught him doing something he was not supposed to be doing. "I'll be going now, nice seeing both of you."

"I'll pass your message to Sabo," Ace said with a nod.

Robin nodded back as thanks and left with a final wave. Ace turned his gaze back to sempai only to find him gloomy and a little bit defeated, just like Luffy when he sees that dinner is not due for another hour. Whatever that silent conversation was about, it did not end in sempai's favour, or rather it was more like his forces were severely outnumbered and completely annihilated. He looked at Marco sympathetically – Sabo had such an effect on him after he thoroughly explained what Ace did wrong when Ace unwittingly messed up. What more, it was always a lost battle because, even though it was annoying as hell, Sabo was always right. Sempai looked just like Ace after a nice long talk with his brother. Luckily, Ace knew exactly what helped him to get his confidence back.

Sempai looked rather surprised when Ace started to gather his things.

"Are you done already?" Marco asked with a slight frown.

"No, but we've been sitting here for three and a half hours. I'm taking a break," he answered, deciding to put his money on hope that sempai would follow him.

(^_^)

Marco had a lot of brothers. Together they could be a really good criminal organisation. Over the years they also perfected their interrogation tactics, so now Marco could be interrogated by anyone who did it for living and still not give them anything they needed. Despite his experience, he was still not prepared for Ace's interrogation tactic. After half an hour of staring he was ready to confess everything, from Chupa-Chupses to the fact that he was the one that broke Izo's favourite toy five years ago, but Thatch was blamed and forced to apologise. Of course he did not break the toy on purpose, but when he was asked if he was the one who did it, he instinctively said no. Given that Thatch and Izo had a fight just a day before, Izo instantly blamed Thatch and Marco was asked only for the sake of the procedure. No one ever suspected Marco and to this day no one knew about it, but, after half an hour of quiet staring, he was ready to spill everything.

He did the only thing that came to his mind – escaped to get coffee even if he didn't really want or need it. What more, just when he thought that he wasn't going to be interrogated and could actually relax, Robin showed up. Not the lost in her own world Robin, but the usual one, namely the very perceptive one. Apparently, this perceptive Robin found it extremely amusing that he was at the library with Ace. Not that she haven't seen Marco with his 'dates' before, but somehow this time Marco felt like he was an exhibition to her. Luckily for him, she didn't stay long.

After she left, Ace started to gather his things as well, confusing Marco because Ace seemed to have quite a load of homework, and he was nowhere near done. Marco himself didn't have much because he was always ahead on his homework, preferring to do it before it was too late. Apparently, Ace used a completely different method, namely leaving everything until last possible moment.

"Are you done already?" Marco asked in disbelief because if he was correct in his assumptions, he would tie Ace to the chair until the closing time or until he was done.

"No, but we've been sitting here for three and a half hours. I'm taking a break," his kouhai responded, and Marco had to agree – three and a half hours without a break was a lot.

"Where are we going?" the blond asked, deciding that if they didn't come back to the library he could still finish it at home and somehow force Ace to do the same. Maybe a Skype session?

Ace gave him a blinding smile, the exact copy that he gave Marco on Monday, making him consider investing in a pair of sunglasses.

"Out," the raven answered, packing his things.

"I kind of figured that one out on my own," Marco rolled his eyes as he opened his bag as carefully as he could – getting caught now would be plain embarrassing.

"We won't go far," Ace responded, refusing to give Marco a proper answer.

"Can you be a little more specific?"

"Don't wanna spoil anything," Ace responded with another smile.

"Should I be afraid?" Marco asked with a small smile of his own as he got up, his stuff back in his bag and Ace still unaware of the whereabouts of his Chupa-Chupses.

"Depends," Ace said slyly, leading the way out of the library.

"On?" Marco raised an eyebrow with curiosity.

"Are you afraid of cafés?"

"No, but I assume they are afraid of you," Marco answered with what he thought to be a harmless jab, but to his surprise (and delight, to be completely honest), Ace turned completely red, acting like he was supposed to act for the first time today.

"You are not going to forget Tuesday anytime soon, are you?" Ace mumbled under his breath.

"Is that the only thing you want me to forget about?" Marco asked suggestively, sensing a weak spot. He was dead on – Ace's blush returned full force, making the raven a colour of a ripe tomato. What he didn't like, though, was that Ace's hand moved to his neck, covering some of the marks Marco personally made just last evening. "Well?" he asked, unable to prevent his icy tone.

Ace mumbled something inaudible, looking away. The blond had to fight down the urge to force the answer out of his kouhai. It surprised him – why was he feeling like he needed Ace to answer that particular question? Why would it bother him at all? He never gave a crap about what people he dated thought about him… Well, that's not really true - he tried to leave a good impression because he learned early on that there was no such thing as a secret among girls. Other than that he never cared what they thought about him. Why would Ace be so different? Why would he want to grab Ace's hand, turn him around and kiss the living daylight out of him right now?

Marco clenched his hands into fists, preventing his stupid body from doing something even more stupid. He was smart; he knew that (the academic ranking of the school was proof enough), but he was behaving irrationally and idiotically. This whole week was irrational and idiotic, and he knew that somehow it was Ace's fault, he just couldn't figure out what triggered him to act like he had. Why he still acted like that…

With all this internal digging, Marco barely noticed when Ace turned onto a smaller street, finding his way to a small and cosy café. It surprised him that despite being hidden and off the main street, the café was almost full. He had no idea who designed the interior, but when Marco entered, he thought it looked a lot like a typical British pub or café. There was a lot of dark wood, and it wasn't very spacious, reminding Marco of a café in London he visited during his summer vacation.

Ace led the way to the counter that was manned by a young girl with black hair and green eyes. After seeing Ace, she put two fingers to her temple and hummed, obviously concentrating on something. Ace came up to the counter and waited with a smile until she finally spoke:

"Let me guess… Double cappuccino… with… hm… Irish cream syrup and a ham panini?" the girl pointed at Ace.

"Almost," the raven replied. "I want hazelnut syrup."

"You changed your mind after I said it," the girl said, starting on the drink.

"Yeah, I did," Ace admitted with a smile; Marco did his best at reminding himself that this was just common courtesy if the customer was one of the regulars and not blatant flirting.

"We have triple chocolate cheesecake," she said, doing some fancy pattern baristas did.

"No cream," Ace answered.

"Of course not," she put the drink on a brick and quickly arranged the cake. "I'll bring the sandwich out in several minutes," she quickly pressed the buttons on the cashing machine, got the receipt and put it into a small black folder next to the drink. "What can I get you?"

At first Marco didn't get that she was talking to him, but caught up quickly.

"Black tea," he said, figuring that if he drank another cup of coffee he'd get caffeine high. "What can you offer to eat?"

"We have sandwiches, salads… Take a look," she offered Marco a paper menu.

After a look at the food, the names of which he didn't recognise, the blond just gave up and said:

"I trust that he won't eat anything bad, so I'll just take the same sandwich." Marco casually pointed at Ace.

"Alrighty. You want anything to go with the tea? If not, you're still getting a mini-cupcake," the girl smiled at Marco, finally fully turning and showing her name tag that simply stated 'Leia'. "Policy of the establishment."

He turned to Ace who nodded with confirmation, standing by a tray with mini-cupcakes. Apparently it was a hard decision – as far as Marco could see there were several flavours.

"Fine, mini-cupcake then."

"You can choose your tea over there. I'll be out with sandwiches shortly," Leia said, giving Marco a brick with big mug full of hot water and a small black folder with the receipt.

She left quickly to put an order and the blond went over to Ace to see what took so long, because choosing a cupcake shouldn't be that hard. The raven was playing 'eeny meeny miny moe' with a concentrated look on his face. When he got a result, he wasn't happy about it, starting again.

"Is it really that hard?" Marco asked, confused.

"But they are really good!" Ace said, then he realised who he was talking to and blushed.

"If I say you can take mine, does it make things easier for you?" the blond said with a slight smile – Ace's relationship with the food was interesting to say the least.

"Not by much, two more are on the house," Leia appeared behind the counter again. "Really, if I don't do that, he'll be standing here, choosing between them for half an hour," she said to Marco in fake whisper, making Ace blush harder but still grab a cupcake of each flavour. "Do you want one?"

"No, I'm good," Marco shook his head.

He followed Ace to the one empty table, stopping to pick up his tea, sugar, and a teaspoon. The blond sat down, already preparing to ignore both Ace and possible stares because the café was full. Therefore he just sat back and sipped his tea calmly, trying not to laugh at the small boy that sat by the table next to theirs. The boy was staring at the raven with awe, evidently impressed by the 'four mini-cupcakes in four seconds' trick. Marco smirked into his mug when the boy's parents noticed their child's staring and were about to reprimand him but instead stared themselves. Deciding to end the show, he kicked Ace lightly under the table.

His kouhai looked up at him from his own drink, oblivious of the stares.

"What?"

Marco's brain temporarily froze as he watched Ace lick the milk foam from his upper lip. His eyes followed the tongue as it swiped over the lip, driving his mind to the same place it was when Ace chose to eat Chupa-Chupses in front of him. An image quickly passed in Marco's mind, involving himself, Ace and the table currently between them. He shook his head, hoping to clear it and reminded himself that he actually was in a public place. That didn't help much, just enough to answer the question.

"Tuesday."

"Tuesday? What about Tue…" then Ace realised and Marco felt it was a safe bet that Ace was mentally cursing himself. "Sorry…" Ace mumbled, looking anywhere but at Marco, who was fine with that.

(^_^)

Ace could barely believe himself and the fact that he just had not only embarrassed himself but sempai as well by association. Deciding to do his very best to keep his manners in line, he took a sip of his cappuccino and took up a spoon, intending to show that he could actually behave… then everything turned black. He came around feeling something soft and kind of creamy under his cheek.

He flew up quickly, realising what that soft and creamy thing was. First thing he saw was sempai's face that was stuck between disbelief, shock, and amusement and then Marco put away his mug with tea and laughed loudly, holding his sides. Before anyone of them could react, there was a flash of camera and a joyful 'Yes!' coming from the direction of the counter.

"Oh, this is priceless!" they were joined by Leia, who held her phone proudly in front of her. She tapped Marco-sempai on the shoulder and, after he looked up at her, showed him the display of the phone.

Sempai doubled over after taking a look at the display, hitting his head on the table but still laughing even harder. With a proud face, Leia showed Ace the phone. To his horror there was he - right half his face covered in what used to be triple chocolate cheesecake and a completely terrified look on that face.

Ace bolted to the bathroom, followed by laughter, not only sempai's but also other patrons'. While this wasn't the first time this happened to him, it was equally embarrassing each and every time, this time being even worse than usual. It was at times like these he wondered 'why him?' Why did it have to be him who had to fall asleep in a cake? Why did his narcolepsy have worst possible timing? He normally laughed everything off, but today was just getting to him… Hell this whole week was getting to him!

He just couldn't believe himself – once he thought he hit the bottom of how much he could humiliate himself, he just kept proving himself wrong! It would have been funny if he wasn't the main character in this comic skit for one spectator.

'It just had to be here and now of all places! Why couldn't it have happened at school or at home?' Ace thought angrily as he tried to get the cake off his face. Such a waste of a perfectly good cake… One of his absolute favourites too… And sempai witnessed the whole thing…

Ace really wanted to punch something – what the hell got into him on that forsaken Monday? Granted, he did not know this would happen but who would have? He poured some soap in his hands and started scrubbing his face clean. Ace was now dead sure that even when Marco-sempai would be around ninety years old, he'd still remember the time he dated a clumsy, impolite, and gluttonous idiot that was raised by mountain bandits. Who would want to be remembered like that? He certainly didn't, but he didn't have a choice in the matter anymore. If anything, he should have tried thinking on Monday, before he opened his yap.

Ace glared at himself in the mirror and couldn't help but flinch when he saw cake in his hair. He struggled with the wish to kick something hard – his narcolepsy couldn't have had a better timing. Ace could bet that sempai wouldn't even blink when he would finally come out of the restroom, hopefully with no cake on his face.

'No wonder none of them are angry at him,' he thought bitterly as he washed the cake out of his hair. 'What did Nami call him? Knight in shining armour?' Ace snorted at that – knight in shining armour, his ass! That knight was probably thinking about the easiest way to bail right now.

Why the hell did it matter what Marco thought? It's not like this very thing didn't happen before, including places from a five star restaurant where Sabo dragged the whole crew to celebrate the contract with Criminal to this very café. He didn't give a crap either time, so what made the situation different? Right, a certain blond sempai made all the difference in the world. Ace huffed, annoyed at a piece of cake that refused to leave his hair. He might just cut the stubborn piece out and let Sabo worry about his looks… But he wouldn't do that, not while he was (and yes, he finally came to terms with himself about it) dating sempai this week.

He pulled at his hair angrily at the realisation that at the end of this week he'll end up like every other person Marco agreed to date. He'll hear the unchanging line and remain a name in sempai's list of people he'll never date ever again. For whatever reason, that pissed Ace off to no end. He almost pulled out the lock of hair that got too friendly with the cake, but it finally gave in so he just washed his face and hair again.

Next week Marco will be dating someone else and there was nothing he could do about it. Somehow, that hurt. It hurt even more when Ace saw the red marks on his neck from yesterday. If this was how Marco behaved during his weeks with people, Ace just wanted to punch him in the face.

"Get your shit together and get the fuck out of here," Ace growled at himself, determinedly unlocking the door and opening it.

Contrary to his expectations, there wasn't anyone outside, waiting for an opportunity to use the bathroom. It relaxed Ace a little bit, but not enough to stop wanting to hurt Marco, the more the better. Ace tried to look anywhere but at Marco-sempai as he made his way back to their table, unsure if he would be able to control himself.

"Are you alright?" the blond asked with concern.

"I'm fine," Ace lied with a weak smile on his face, doing his best to relax.

(^_^)

Something was off. Something was definitely not right. When Ace first planted in the cake, Marco intended to keep a straight face no matter what, but when he woke up, Marco just couldn't help himself. When Ace bolted to the restroom, Marco expected him to return in a couple of minutes, bright red in the face. He definitely did not expect the raven come out looking as if he was about to slaughter someone. Ace definitely wasn't fine, and the only thing Marco could actually do without knowing what was wrong was to apologise, which he did. Not that it did much – the raven just sat there, staring out the window, looking pissed. He barely even touched his sandwich which, in Marco's opinion, was a strong indicator that something was definitely wrong.

They did not stay long – after fifteen minutes of silent staring out the window Ace just rose without a word, gathered his things and went to the counter with his receipt to pay. Marco swiftly followed him, completely at loss as to what to do. Ace remained silent throughout the payment and left without waiting for Marco, who literally ran out after him, unintentionally leaving a giant tip.

When he ran out the café, he barely caught a glimpse of Ace turning around the corner of the street, so he hurried after the raven, worry eating him from inside. He needed to make right whatever went wrong because mere thought of Ace being mad at him or worse – hating him – hurt so much he could barely bear it.

Marco finally caught up to Ace in the city park that was more of small forest inside the city with small paths throughout it.

"Ace!" he called, barely keeping up with the raven. "Ace, please, wait!"

Ace completely ignored his words, keeping his head down. Marco caught Ace's hand, trying to at least slow him down. That didn't really work – Ace gave him a quick glance that stopped the blond dead in his tracks, releasing the hand. The raven looked angry, yes, but more than that he looked hurt. Marco didn't know what he could have done to cause this, but somehow he was sure that he was the one that hurt Ace. Sure, he laughed, but he wasn't only one – the situation was so hilarious he just couldn't keep it in. Marco had no idea how to mend whatever went wrong, so he just did the first thing that came to his mind.

The blond caught up to Ace and grabbed his hand again. Then, without allowing the raven to run away again, Marco crushed him in a hug. He felt Ace tense up at first, and then he started struggling, trying to push him away, but it only made Marco hug him tighter. After a minute of fighting, Ace relaxed in his arms, resting his head on the blond's shoulder and gripping the front of Marco's shirt. Marco held him close, wishing that it was himself hurting because he couldn't bear to see Ace hurting.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "Sorry…" Marco would have done anything to protect Ace from hurting ever again because seeing him like this pained him to no end.

It was in this moment Marco realised that somehow, during those short four days, Ace had become important to him. Important enough for the blond to know that he would do anything in his power to protect Ace from hurting ever again, that he would give his life for Ace without slightest hesitation. He knew that he would be whatever Ace wanted him to be as long as he could stay by his side.

"Sorry…" Marco said again, feeling helpless that he could do no more than this.

Ace took a deep breath and for a moment Marco was afraid that he would end the embrace, but Ace's arms circled him, hugging him back. They stayed like that for some time, remaining silent and still until raven broke the silence.

"Thank you," he murmured into Marco's shoulder.

"Anytime," the blond replied, actually meaning it.

* * *

**Sorry that I can't promise an update anytime soon. **

**Thanks for all the reviews, favs and follows. **

**Hope to see you sooner rather than later :D**

**~Rhe.**


	13. Friday (Part 1)

**How's everybody?**

** I have a word of advice for you - don't apply to medical universities, you might actually get accepted. Whatever free time I had I used for... well, not writing because the writing block decided to show itself again. **

**Since tomorrow is Christmas in orthodox churches and since I belong to an orthodox church - Merry Christmas! **

**As always, my eternal gratitude to lunarshores and her amazing betaig skills. **

**Song of the chapter: _Closer To You_ by_ Adelitas Way_. (I'm actually curious if anyone is listening to them, but I will continue to do this regardless)**

* * *

Ace lay on his bed on his side staring at the phone in his hands. It was silent, just like a minute ago. He saw the clock change to 6:30, and the alarm rang. He switched off the alarm and looked at the phone again, trying to will it to ring. Ace was well aware of the reason for his behaviour but he didn't give a damn. He waited.

The clock slowly changed to 6:31, then 6:32. Ace stayed as he was – on his side with his phone in his hands. Then, finally, at 6:36, it rang.

"Hello?" he answered the call eagerly, sitting up.

"You sound way too cheerful for someone who just woke up," came the reply with a barely audible chuckle.

"I went to bed early yesterday, so I woke up early," Ace answered as he got out of bed and walked to the bathroom.

"I thought it didn't apply to you."

"To every rule, there's an exception," he replied smartly, putting the phone on speaker and then suddenly Luffy barged into his room with a loud yell:

"ACE WAKE UP!"

"Lu, I'm awake," Ace called from the bathroom, wincing.

"EEEEEEEH?" Luffy whined. "Can't you go back to bed and let me wake you up?"

"No," the elder teen opened the tap and started brushing his teeth, forgetting about the phone call for a moment because his mind went into 'time to feed Luffy soon' mode.

"No fair! I want to wake you up!"

"Lu, go shtart zhe coshee," Ace said with a toothbrush in his mouth, contemplating breakfast choices.

"Okaaaaay," Luffy replied with disappointment and stormed off to the kitchen.

Ace continued to brush his teeth with a nagging feeling that he forgot something. He thought hard about what he could have possibly forgotten, but nothing came to his mind – the morning was pretty usual despite him waking up earlier…

"I knew it, your brother enjoys waking you up in an inhumane way," said Ace's phone suddenly.

"Gah!" he jumped, surprised. "Shit, I forgot I was talking to you…"

"That's very flattering of you. I'm going down for breakfast so please be quiet unless you want me to die a slow and painful death."

"You just brim with optimism," Ace laughed.

He heard some rustling, then steps and then, finally, door opening and people exchanging 'good mornings'. With a smile Ace turned the speaker off and continued with his usual morning ritual. He got dressed and went downstairs, fully prepared to be assaulted by Luffy and his breakfast craving for meat. Finally deciding on making bacon and eggs, Ace set to completing his task of keeping Luffy fed enough to get him to school. At school the pirate bentou and Sanji would take over.

Busy with cooking, he only noticed last moment when his phone made a noise. He reached for it, but before he could pick it up the call ended. Ace decided to let it go since the last thing he heard was Marco telling someone to give him back his phone. Shrugging, Ace busied himself with cooking.

Well, he wasn't really busy with cooking – Ace has been making breakfast for Luffy for a long time - he did it automatically now. Ace was busy thinking. It didn't take a genius to figure out what he was thinking about, or, rather, who he was thinking about. After some serious internal excavations and his afternoon with sempai, Ace started to suspect that he actually liked Marco. Not in 'he's a cool guy to hang out with' kind of way but more like 'I want to date him' kind of way. What surprised him was that he didn't give a crap about Marco being a guy. He cared about a lot of things like, for example, Marco's demeanour or his sense of humour or even his over exaggerated sense of responsibility, but him having a dick was not one of them.

Hell, to be completely honest with himself, Ace in fact liked it if his memory of Wednesday was accurate. And, to be absolutely and definitely honest with himself without any half-truths, Ace kinda liked the fact that Marco was stronger than him… And that was all he was going to say about it!

The only thing he didn't like was Sunday. Sunday meant that Monday would be next, and then Marco would be dating someone else. He wouldn't be able to do anything if Marco decided to end things, but he still had three days left, and he had to make them count. Ace needed to somehow make sempai fall in love with him, which was easier said than done given his track record.

Ace was startled when his phone rang – he successfully cooked breakfast and had just finished eating it, completely lost in thought. Luffy was looking for his bag as always.

"Sorry about that," Marco said when Ace answered the call.

"I had to feed Luffy so don't worry," Ace answered with a half-truth. He was actually getting good at lying without lying.

"Ah, I see. You have my condolences," Sempai chuckled on the other end.

"ACE, IT'S NOT IN THE LIVING ROOM EITHER!" Luffy shouted.

"Check the kitchen!" Ace answered, going back to his room to fetch his own bag.

"It's nice to hear that your morning routine is constant," Marco commented.

"Oh, shut it," Ace rolled his eyes.

"You just overflow with cheerfulness."

"You bet I do," Ace snorted. "See you at school?"

"I'll be extra careful during the first break and make sure to look both ways before I cross a corridor."

"And I'll make sure you carry a cup of coffee before I run you over," Ace retorted with a smile, hanging up.

(^_^)

Friday morning for Marco started like majority of mornings this week. It was not the alarm that woke him but a very explicit dream about a certain freckled kouhai. It had only gotten worse since Wednesday, and Marco was seriously afraid that he would jump Ace the second he saw him at school. His body refused to listen to his common sense, which was severely overpowered by his dick, and a small voice in his head that said that jumping Ace wouldn't be a bad thing because for the moment Ace was his boyfriend.

Since yesterday they agreed that Marco would call in the morning and check if Ace woke up on time, and he did that, but, unfortunately, he had one brother too many. Still, despite the interruption and a small banter with Ace, his gut was telling him that something was off and since his gut was almost always right, Marco thought about the one thing that could have been the cause for it.

He thought that whatever happened yesterday stayed in yesterday, but there still was something that made Ace angry at him. What made the matter worse was that he still had no idea what that was. The only course of action Marco came up with was to literally ask Ace what was wrong and hope that Ace wouldn't say 'what do you think?' to him.

On his way to school Marco almost broke his brain replaying this week in his head from the very beginning. He couldn't come up with a single thing that could have made Ace mad at him. Yeah, he did his fair share of teasing, but it was friendly teasing. He hoped Ace knew that.

Marco stopped dead in his tracks when he spotted Robin by the school gate. She clearly waited for him because when she spotted Marco, a Cheshire grin made its way onto her face.

"Just shut up," Marco said when he passed by her.

"I didn't say anything," Robin answered, her grin growing even wider.

"Good, keep it that way," Marco sighed.

"You're no fun," Robin shoved him lightly.

"You really want to start this with me?" he smiled, raising his left hand, ready to shove his friend back.

Answer came in form of another light push that Marco easily evaded. He lightly pushed Robin back, minding his strength – if this was a game with his brothers he would have used his full strength, but this was school, and Robin was still a girl, despite having a black belt in karate. That didn't go unnoticed past his friend, who took offence at that and shoved him hard enough to lose his balance and almost fall.

"Robin, don't," Marco said warningly but with a smile.

"Or what?"

"Robin, I have thirteen brothers. Just don't."

"You know, not many people can say that nowadays. Does that bother you?" Robin either heeded his warning or spotted a teacher because she moved her bag to her 'shoving' hand.

"Not really. Should it?" Marco answered as they entered the school and went in the direction of their homeroom.

"I wouldn't know, I'm an only child. So it doesn't bother you?"

"Well, people's faces after they learn that are getting annoying," he answered after thinking about it for a minute.

"How did Ace react?" Robin asked slyly.

Marco sighed at the lost cause and thought back to the forest. Ace's face looked shocked, and he looked like he felt sorry for Marco, so he could only conclude that Ace imagined fourteen Luffys.

"I think he thinks I have his brother multiplied by fourteen at home," Marco said as he dropped his bag on his desk.

"Well, that would have been unfortunate," Robin laughed. "I have to say though, I find it strange that he asked you out."

"Why?" Marco frowned – he didn't think he liked where this was going.

"You're the first guy he asked out. Plus he was dumped just last week."

"Why?" Marco's frown deepened – he certainly didn't like what Robin was implying.

"Because he's nice to everybody. Stupid reason, if you ask me, but what do I know, I never dated him," Robin shrugged casually.

"Are you saying this is rebound?"

"I never said that. I just think it's strange."

Marco plopped on his chair with a scowl. While he didn't know the average length of rebound period, he had to admit that it could be the thing that made Ace so angry yesterday. Maybe Ace was regretting this whole thing. Not that he could blame him – on more than one occasion he could have appeared annoyed or bored, when in reality he was trying to stop thinking with his dick.

"Hey!" Robin suddenly hit him on the head with her notebook and looked him directly in the eyes. "Stop overthinking it. I love worst case scenarios, but that doesn't mean that this is one of them."

"Wh…"

"Zip it. And stop thinking."

Marco rolled his eyes as a thought crossed his mind – too many people have been telling him to shut up recently. He didn't really know what to make of it – maybe he was annoying. Robin didn't get a chance to tell him off even more because the bell rang, and she had to sit down. Her back didn't have the same authority as her face, so Marco returned to thinking, tuning the math teacher out.

No matter the reason, he still had to talk to Ace. That much was clear. He would ask what was wrong and then go from there. Robin was right – speculating without many facts was likely to drag him down the wrong road. With that in mind he pulled out his phone and sent Ace a simple message stating **'Need 2 talk. 1st break?'** Marco was aware that this text was likely to scare Ace into having a heart attack (he knew from his own experience that such a message was never good), but he felt this was a necessary evil to clear everything out.

In a moment he got a text back from Ace: **'Sure is sth wrong?'**

'**No, just need 2 talk '**

'**Ok'**

With a sigh Marco put his phone away and got his book out. This was going to be a long math lesson.

(^_^)

Ace was thinking. And thinking. And thinking. He felt like Luffy if he were being introduced to nuclear physics – he was trying really hard to figure something out, but was on verge of giving up and call everything a mystery thingy. His earlier determination to make sempai fall in love with him had suffered a severe blow from reality. The reality was that he indeed was a clumsy, impolite, and gluttonous idiot raised by mountain bandits. He wasn't exceptionally smart either, and his sense of humour wasn't the best there was.

Trying to counteract the upcoming depression, Ace started counting things he was good at. He could hold his ground in a fight (not that it helped much – sempai could relatively easily beat him), he got along with everyone (that didn't help either – most of his relationships ended because of that very thing), he was relatively good at modelling (although he failed to see how that was helpful) and he was good at taking care of Luffy. The last one was only helpful if he was auditioning for a job as a beast tamer at a circus – keeping Luffy focused and in line wasn't as easy as one could think.

He tried looking at it from another angle, namely remembering what his exes liked about him. After some time Ace came to an unfortunate conclusion – his exes were extremely shallow, meaning that they agreed on one thing. Every one of them thought he was hot. Ace didn't really know how much truth was behind their reasoning, but both Nami and Sabo called him a 'pretty boy' on more than one occasion. Still, how was he supposed to make use of that? Ace stared out the window for a moment, trying to find a use for his looks, until it suddenly dawned on him. He wanted to bang his head on the desk at the result.

While the answer was pretty obvious, it wasn't something Ace felt comfortable doing. In fact, the whole thing could come out awkward and forced with the amount of his experience in that particular area. Not to mention embarrassing, but, on the other hand, what did he have to lose? He already humiliated himself beyond human understanding, why should he care now? At least now he had a plan for what to do about that cryptic (and scary) 'we need to talk' message.

Thus, when the bell rang Ace calmly made his way to the cafeteria. They did not agree on a meeting spot, but they seemed to run into each other there so it was his first choice. Despite having decided on course of action, he got more nervous the closer he got to cafeteria. The plan had holes the size of Jupiter in it, and he had no idea what to do in case it went south, but he still gathered what was left of his courage and waited.

Sempai showed up a couple of minutes later, giving Ace just enough time to imagine all possible scenarios and even more reasons to why sempai wanted to talk to him.

"Sorry, got held up by my teacher. The guy doesn't take no for an answer," Marco said, stopping in front of Ace.

"What did he want?" Ace asked just to play for time, his voice levelled despite his heart trying to break through his ribcage.

"The same thing he always wants - me studying math at RLU after graduation." Sempai rolled his eyes – apparently the topic was old and annoying.

"And you don't want that?" He winced at his obvious stalling, but sempai didn't seem to notice.

"I could have actually thought about it, but he's been pushing me in that direction for two years now so I won't do that just to spite him," Marco said with a smug look on his face.

"What would you do then?" Ace was surprised sempai was still oblivious to his dodging.

"Don't know yet. Law school maybe?" Marco seemed lost in thought for a moment, but then he seemed to catch on what Ace was doing. "Let's go somewhere quiet, I want to actually hear myself speak."

Ace nodded – it was in fact very loud in the cafeteria during breaks. He followed sempai to one of the study rooms, heart hammering in his chest as he tried to decide if he should go along with his stupid plan. It was, after all, stupid. Well, worst case scenario was that sempai got tired of him and wanted to break up with him before the end of the week, so, if that was the case, his plan didn't really matter. Despite this thought being slightly calming, his heart was pumping blood like crazy when he followed sempai into an empty study room.

After entering, Ace locked the door behind himself and was met by surprised look on Marco's face. Mentally wishing himself best of luck, Ace set his plan in motion.

(^_^)

Marco expected a lot of things from Ace when they entered the study room. There were countless ways this 'we need to talk' talk could go. This, however, was not one of the things he would have expected. His brain short circuited when Ace grabbed his tie and pulled him into a kiss. His body reacted quickly though – before he could process what was happening he was already answering the kiss heatedly as he pushed Ace back into the door. One hand tangled in the black hair as the other was trying to get a better feel of that smoking hot body.

His lips left Ace's mouth to feverishly trace down his kouhai's neck. All thoughts about talking about anything flew out the window; he didn't give a damn about that anymore. Everything Marco wanted was right in front of him, letting out a barely audible moan when he sucked on the old mark. The hand in the hair dropped down in favour of exploring the body in front of him.

Ace had other ideas though – before Marco could do anything or put together a coherent thought, Ace switched their positions. He let out a surprised gasp when his back hit the door, which Ace immediately used to completely turn the tables and dominate the kiss. Needless to say, this was very far from what Marco was used to: somehow it went without saying that he was always the one to run the show. It didn't matter if he dated a guy or a girl, he was always the one in charge. This time, however, Marco got to be on the other side.

And Marco didn't exactly dislike it. He barely could hold back his voice when Ace completely eliminated the distance between their bodies, pressing his body to Marco's and kissed his neck. It was surprisingly addicting, Marco wanted more with every passing second. More contact, more touches, more kisses, and more of Ace. What he had was not enough. He wanted to know everything there was to know about his kouhai, from his favourite colour to every spot on his body that drove him crazy...

Marco switched their positions back, finally gathering enough willpower to do so - his body was content with allowing Ace to do whatever he wanted with it- and sneaked his hands under Ace's shirt to feel the skin. It was hot and smooth, and he could feel every muscle beneath it.

Ace made a soft noise into their kiss, which was gradually getting more sloppy, at the touch, making Marco suddenly aware of what exactly they were doing. They were in a study room at their school, making out like there was no tomorrow. Not that Marco was about to complain or do anything about it. Still, before he could take off Ace's shirt and get a better look, the bell rang, startling both of them.

The confused look on his kouhai's face turned into that of pure terror in about half a second. He broke free from Marco's embrace, quickly making himself more presentable.

"I'm really sorry, but Godzilla will have my head if I'm late," Ace gave him a quick peck on the lips before unlocking the door and bolting out.

Marco was left standing there, confused and completely disoriented. He understood why Ace was in such a rush – he'd had Godzilla last year in English, the hag was merciless (although Marco suspected she kinda liked him and wasn't as hard on him as other students for whatever reason). However, that was about the only thing that made any sense. He had no idea where everything else came from, all he wanted was to talk (well, not really, but he could at least pretend like it was true).

He slowly followed Ace's example, making himself presentable and leaving the room. Absentmindedly, Marco took out his phone and checked for any messages from Robin – they had a free-ish period, namely they had to work on a project that was due in December. Mostly people did whatever they wanted, often using this time to do some homework; Marco used it as an extra-long break to do nothing at all or play cards with Robin.

There were several messages from Robin – '**Where are u?**' followed by '**The bell is gonna ring in a moment'** and '**Anyway, I'm in a study room across from library'**.

He made his way to Robin's location, deep in thought. Yet again Ace proved that he was impossible to read or predict. The… situation in the study room came out of nowhere, forcing Marco to take a step back in his conclusions. He wrecked his brain again trying to gather enough information to solve a puzzle called Ace. Unfortunately for him, Ace wasn't one of his math problems that were easy to solve. He was an enigma Marco just couldn't understand.

Robin was in their usual study room, her head shot up from a book she was reading when Marco entered. For a moment they just stared at each other until Robin finally spoke:

"I hope I did not disturb you," she said with a slight smile, holding back her teasing for now.

"You didn't," Marco made his way to the round table that was in the middle of the study room and slumped on an empty chair.

"Then why are you so gloomy?"

"I'm not gloomy," he folded his arms on the table and dropped his head on them, hiding his face. "I'm thinking."

"Aha… What about?" she asked. Marco answered by lifting his face and glaring at her for a second. "Alright. Although I don't know what is there to think about."

"I don't know… I just can't understand what's going on in that head of his!" Marco huffed into his arms.

"What is there to understand? Ace is very straightforward: he's terrible at lying or hiding things. Any worse and he'd be Luffy who can't lie at all," Robin laughed. "If he doesn't like you, he won't act like me or you, he'll be as obvious as it gets. He might not punch you straight in the face, but it will be very clear regardless."

"What would make him angry then?" Marco said, more to himself, but Robin answered anyway.

"It didn't look to me like he was angry at you. More like very interested."

"But still?"

"You clearly didn't insult Luffy or Sabo, otherwise you would have a black eye at the very least," she said thoughtfully. "And you didn't switch his coffee to decaff… You know, he's surprisingly mellow for someone with that type of upbringing. There aren't many things that would make him angry."

"Just great…"

"Have you tried asking him? He'll probably just tell you right away," Robin suggested.

"What do you think I tried to do?" Marco glared at Robin again.

His friend stared at him with wide eyes for a moment, then laughed loudly.

"Seriously?" she managed to say though laughter. "And that," she gestured at him, "is the result?"

Marco just sighed, hiding his face again.

* * *

**Thanks for all the reviews, favs and follows! Also, congrats to Vivianne95 for being the 100th reviewer. **

**It means a lot to me to have such a response to my fic and the support you give. 100+ reviews! Did I expect this? No. Am I happy? You bet I am!**

**The very last thing I would want to give you is more waiting, but, unfortunatelly, heck if I know when I'll have tome or inspiration... **

**Still, hope to see you sooner rather than later,**

**~Rhe.**

**PS. Godzilla was inspired by my actual english teacher... brrr...**


	14. Friday (Part 2)

**Happy anniversary! :D It's been a year since this fic started and I would like to thank everyone for the incredible support you've given me. Extra large thanks goes to my betas, aqua-empress, Lady Spritzy and incredible lunarshores who all helped me a great deal. **

**(Insert whining about med school here)**

**Disclaimer: the characters are definitely not mine.**

**Song of the chapter: Light 'em Up by Fall Out Boy.**

* * *

Spacing out on Godzilla's lessons was potentially dangerous and could bring a lot of negative consequences, including but not limited to: getting on her bad side, failing the next test,or receiving extra homework to prove that you understood the material. Despite being fully aware of all the risks, Ace found it extremely difficult to focus on what was said by the scariest teacher of the entire school. His mind was racing between 'I actually did it' and 'it actually worked!' He was finding it hard to comprehend – the plan was Stupid (with capital S, he was actually contemplating putting capital letters all the way through), it lacked details like 'what to do in case it goes badly' and was poorly thought through. Ace hated to admit it, but it was just like him to come up with something so badly planned. What kept surprising him was that 90% of the time his plans actually worked, despite being extremely stupid. As a comparison, Sabo's flawlessly thought through plans worked only 60% of the time. Sabo blamed it on the fact that nobody expected such level of stupidity and in privacy of his own head and in retrospect Ace agreed with his brother.

Today's course of action was topping every single idiotic plan Ace had ever come up with. Sure, he'd come up with it, but what on earth possessed him into going through with it? Again, in retrospect, it was peak of stupidity… and it actually worked. Sabo was definitely right, nobody expected such… thinking outside the box. Especially not Marco-sempai, who was not easily pushed off track – a couple of minutes ago Ace risked Godzilla's wrath by checking his phone, and sempai was still intending to talk to him.

Being a rational human being, Ace could guess that this stupid plan wouldn't work twice on a normal person, much less Marco. Thus he needed a back-up plan. Probably something equally idiotic. After ten minutes of coming up with different schemes and deeming them not stupid enough, Ace finally chose one. But then again, it was Marco-sempai he was going to try to side-track. On the other hand his last plan worked…

Ace sighed, his gaze drifting to the clock in the classroom. He idly wondered what was worse – Marco-sempai wanting to talk or Garp in his join-the-marines-or-else mood. Both were scary, but the prize would probably go to Garp, though sempai might beat him in a couple of years. Ace recalled what Marco told him when he tried to stall. He could easily see Marco-sempai in the court room running the show, it was oddly fitting him. For the fun of it, Ace tried to imagine Marco in different professions. He almost laughed out loud imagining his sempai as a kindergarten teacher and small kids marching in line. Another favourite was Marco as a policeman – Ace could clearly imagine poor suspects crying and confessing to all their sins. Plus the uniform wouldn't look too bad on him.

Since Godzilla was either in a good mood today (and that happened like a couple of times since Ace started at Enies Lobby High) or she didn't notice him spacing out (that never happened before), Ace lived to see the end of the class. He didn't even get extra homework which would have made his day has it not been for all the personal problems he had. With a sigh Ace got his coffee money and moved for the cafeteria. He really wanted to avoid the talk and his stupid plan, but lack of caffeine was forcing him to face his doom.

Cafeteria was slightly calmer than during the first break, though there still was a line for coffee. Raising his eyebrows slightly at the unfamiliar person in front of him checking her clock every couple of seconds and tapping her foot impatiently, Ace took out his phone to check for messages. There wasn't anything from Marco, but he had one text from Nami.

'**Home with food poisoning, been up all night :(** **just woke up**'

'**Sorry to hear that :( get better :)'**

The line moved a little; the impatient person in front of him looked like she was about to explode with anger at the people before her. Ace was about to ask that girl what was on fire for her to be so impatient, but to his surprise he got a call from Nami.

"Wassup?" he said, realising that Nami just saved him from getting his head bit off.

"Did Godzilla give you anything for me?" Nami asked, her voice hoarse and tired.

"Nah, she was in surprisingly good mood today, just general homework," Ace answered; the impatient girl muttered a curse loudly and left the line.

"Thank God!" Nami breathed out, sounding extremely relieved.

Ace laughed at his friend, greeting approaching Marco with a nod and a raised hand to show that he was busy now, but will be free in a moment.

"You know, Zoro would find it very amusing that you pray to God and not worship Satan," he said with a smile.

"This is just a façade, I have my reversed cross and an altar for children sacrifices in my basement," Nami said with a laugh. "Now I'm going back to sleep, I need my strength to fly to a witch Sabbath later tonight."

"Is that what you call your 'girls only' nights?"

"Oh, fuck off," Nami laughed.

"Get well and see you on Monday. Don't drink too much baby blood, you always complain it's giving you a hangover," Ace ignored weird stares he got from people around him.

"Shut up," Nami snapped playfully and hung up.

Ace chuckled as he put his phone in his pocket. Since it was his turn now, he turned to Marco.

"You want one?" he asked, gesturing at the coffee pot.

"No, but thanks anyway," his sempai answered with a small smile.

"Suit yourself," Ace shrugged, trying to act cool despite the internal turmoil. The actions from the last break flooded his mind and suddenly he had no idea how to act. Should he pretend nothing ever happened? Also, should he go through with his stupid plan number two? Could someone, please, tell him exactly what to do? "So… You wanna go somewhere quiet?" he asked, taking his time stirring the coffee to dissolve three spoons of sugar.

"Wha…? Um, no, I'd rather talk here," Marco answered hastily; there went both Ace's stupid plans, now what was he supposed to do?

"Alright," Ace spotted an empty table and moved to sit there, doing his best to avoid looking at Marco. This definitely won't be the best 'coffee conversation' he's ever had.

(^_^)

Somehow, Marco was pretty sure Ace was doing it on purpose. He naïvely thought that staying in the cafeteria would keep things on the safe side. Ha! While he was still trying to figure out how to start that conversation, Ace was quietly drinking his coffee, seemingly lost in thought. However, the moment Marco opened his mouth to say something, the words died in his mouth. Ace had finally looked up at him, but in all honesty Marco really wished his kouhai continued studying the table.

Before now the blond firmly believed that it was impossible to turn somebody on with just their eyes, but Ace seemed to like proving him wrong. There was Ace, sitting on a chair and completely relaxed, sipping his coffee, and Marco was trying to convince himself that if he did what he wanted right here and now, he'd be expelled.

"Well?" Ace said, his silvery eyes roaming the blond's body; Marco could easily bet all his future allowances that a certain kouhai had x-ray vision or, at the very least, that he was being slowly stripped of all his clothes in Ace's mind.

"Er..." Marco frantically tried to put together his rapidly shattering mind. It wasn't going too well because he suddenly remembered that Ace was in his judo club, meaning that they had to share showers countless times. That brought forth a question Marco really wanted to know the answer for – did he look okay? The sudden doubt surprised Marco – the only time he asked himself that question was before he left the house for school.

"You wanted to talk about something?" Ace helpfully suggested, seeing as Marco wasn't about to start talking anytime soon.

"Um... Yes, right, I wanted to talk about..." The blond resisted an urge to yell at Ace to look somewhere else because he was finding it hard to concentrate on anything with that x-ray vision. "I wanted to talk about... something..." Marco wanted to bang his head on the table between them. What was wrong with him? And what the hell was this right now? He shook his head to clear it.

"How about we do that during lunch? I have to be in the art building in three minutes," Ace said, finally looking away from Marco to a clock on the wall behind him.

"Yeah, good idea," the blond mentally patted himself on the back for finally being able to string together a couple of words and getting extra time to think.

He waited for Ace to walk away first before he got up and went to his own lesson. Marco could barely believe his own sudden stupidity. Without his frustrating kouhai anywhere near, he had trouble understanding why it was so hard to put together a couple of words and ask a question. Speaking of questions, he made a quick detour to the bathroom to see if he looked as dumb as he felt.

The good news were that his clothes looked fine. The rest, though... His hair was in complete disarray making him look as if he just got out of bed. With a sigh Marco tried to make his hair look less messy, did not accomplish much and went to the subject he considered a waste of his time, namely geography with elements of geology. He won't use the knowledge acquired there at all – not one of the professions he considered required knowledge about different types of soil, minerals and their locations in the country.

In the classroom Robin waited for him like a predator, ready to sink her claws in and hold him until he spilled everything. The problem was that he didn't have much to spill, except for his frankly embarrassing behaviour.

"So?" she asked eagerly, looking at him with eyes hungry for any kind of knowledge.

"So nothing," Marco grumbled as he took his seat.

"What do you mean nothing? You were supposed to talk to him!" she hissed quietly, wary of any person that could overhear their conversation.

"I tried!" Marco hissed back. Key word was 'tried'.

"For crying out loud, can you be a little more specific? What do you mean 'tried'? Did he refuse to answer?" Robin frowned at him.

"Um... no... he seemed willing to cooperate..." the blond mumbled.

"Then what?"

"Um... I may not have gotten around to asking him?" he said, averting his eyes.

"The hell got in your way?!" Robin looked at him with round eyes; Marco considered his answering options – a) his dick, b) x-ray vision, c) lack of brain cells. It didn't look good... It seemed like she got the point without his answer, so she made scary eyes at him and hissed: "If you don't figure this out during lunch break I will kick your ass!" With that she turned around to face the board and the teacher that was about to check attendance.

Marco sighed, agreeing that if he didn't get an answer from Ace during lunch then he indeed deserved to get his ass kicked by Robin.

(^_^)

Ace quickly made his way to the art building, all but fleeing the scene of confrontation. For all they cared he could have just skipped the 'artistic activity' as it was pretentiously called by the school. He was forbidden from entering the musical part of the building lest he be killed by the closest instrument the musicians could lift (thanks to his musical anti-talent), the painters/sculptors would rather die themselves than let him or Luffy waste their materials for something so abstract that it didn't resemble any kind of art and the theatrical/dance section was all too eager to get their paws on him, which left Ace with but one option – photography and design.

To be completely honest, Ace didn't even need to show his face there because of his extracurricular activity with Sabo already granting him a passing grade. Still, the school required him to spend a certain amount of hours in the art building, so he spent his time there as a creative advisor/coach for photographers and wannabe models. Basically all he had to do was sit, drink coffee and nod or shake his head from time to time. The only thing that bugged him were all the overeager people that thought that by sucking up to him they could get to Sabo. Naïve idiots, their allowances were too meagre to buy Ace a meal large enough for him to agree to make an introduction.

Once safely inside the building Ace changed his pace from quick to sluggish, not in a hurry whatsoever. He strolled into the department about a quarter of an hour late due to admiring of artistic creations of the painters and sculptors that were exhibited throughout the building. Ace rarely checked them out, but today he needed to think and what could possibly serve that purpose better?

The teacher nodded at him from the designer section separated from photography by glass walls and resumed pointing out bad ideas on a sketch presented by one of the students.

"You are late!" Vivi came over to him and grabbed his ear. "Whole sixteen minutes! When it's finally my turn to get behind the camera!"

"Ow-ow-ow, sorry, sorry," Ace apologised as he was dragged to his seat by the monitor.

"Apology not accepted! Sit!" Vivi forced him into his seat and grabbed her camera.

"What is it I'm looking at?" he rubbed his poor ear as he looked at the monitor; Vivi was the sweetest girl until provoked. On the other hand, weren't they all?

"You tell me," she said, checking the camera.

"No idea," Ace shrugged; after they broke up they immediately returned to their previous friendship, sighing in relief – dating brought an incredible awkwardness between them and without it they were million times better. Since Vivi was afraid of Nami's scary side, Ace took the blame for break up – his friend's scary face hadn't worked on him for quite some time. After that they promised to each other to never lose a bet to Nami, who wanted to try her hand at match-making. "What were you trying to do?"

"Do you remember that photo-shoot you had with lots of fabric?" Vivi came over to see the photos.

"Oh, so that's what it is..." Ace moved his gaze from the monitor to the supposed model who looked like big, colourful rug. "Um, I don't remember being turned into some nightmarish thing. I can't even recognize who that is."

"That would be me," the rug raised its appendix and Ace, to his utter surprise, recognised the voice – it was Tashigi, Vivi's classmate who had one goal in life - namely kicking Zoro's ass in kendo.

"Wow... Who did this to you?" Ace asked, barely containing laughter.

"I did," Vivi admitted with a faint blush.

"Take away anything with a pattern, that ugly green thing and that thing that looks like a potato sack," Ace said after he suppressed his laughter. When the girls did as he said, he was faced with a colour palette that looked like a disco ball hit by several lights of different colour. "Anything shiny too."

"Eeeh? But I wanted some to make it a bit more fun!" Vivi protested.

"Compromise – choose one shiny thing you want to keep," Ace suggested.

"Fine," his friend grumbled.

"And that bright red thing, the orange one too and anything in neon... Tashigi, how are you still alive?"

The no-longer-rug-but-not-a-human-yet in front of the camera shrugged. Ace looked at the growing pile of fabrics on the floor, idly noting that if he was wrapped in that, he would have suffocated within five minutes. With a sigh he got up to help Vivi unwrap Tashigi. When the result satisfied them both Ace suddenly realized that the bell would ring in two minutes and he still didn't have a viable strategy. Apparently his face was an open book because Vivi asked him:

"Are you alright? You look rather pale."

"No, I am definitely not alright," Ace mumbled under his nose the same time as the bell rang.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that."

"I am fine, Vivi, don't worry," he said with a sigh. He took out his phone and stared at it. Improvisation it was then, Ace decided and slowly went to his execution.

(^_^)

After getting a murderous glare from his best friend, Marco wouldn't dare to come back without any answer from Ace. He needed a strategy, a plan, a 'what to do in case Ace tries to get him off track again'. The problem was that he had hard time coming up with one – all of his plans were based on thinking inside the box, and his kouhai proved well enough that he wasn't thinking inside the box. The only thing he could decide on is that they would talk in private- in case he was unable to string two words together he could do the same thing Ace did during first break. Marco got the phrasing done during geography, now the only thing left was to ask him, but he was well aware that it was easier said than done.

The cafeteria was swarmed with people so Marco patted himself on the back for choosing to speak in private. Now, if he could just talk... Too busy with beating himself down mentally, he noticed his kouhai only at the last minute.

"So, are we going to talk?" Ace asked, tilting his head a little and exposing his neck.

"Maybe not here," Marco forced out, his eyes glued to the exposed neck. He did extremely good job at marking his kouhai, no one would question who he belonged to... Wait, what? Ace was neither a patch of land nor livestock for him to put a claim on him. Marco shook his head, angry with himself. The heck was wrong with him? If he wouldn't be able to talk to Ace right now, he'd ask Robin to beat some sense into him after school.

"Alright, lead the way," Ace put his hands in his pockets, looking very relaxed and not bothered by Marco's stupidity in the slightest. That made the blond wonder that maybe it was just him, that maybe Ace didn't give a crap about him. Somehow the thought of that being the case hurt.

Marco led them to another study room and opened the door, letting Ace enter first – he did learn from his mistakes. Ace shrugged and went to the far side of the room to prop himself on the writing desk, ignoring chairs. Marco entered after him, closing the door and leaning against it. So far so good.

"I've been meaning to ask you..." Marco started.

"I noticed," Ace smirked.

"Maybe if you let me finish I would get to actually asking," the blond said defensively.

"I did not interrupt you last break in the cafeteria," his kouhai rightfully noticed.

"I needed some more time to think..."

"Are you done thinking?"

"Yes," Marco's eyebrow twitched in annoyance at how offensive Ace was, forcing him into a defensive position.

"I am listening," Ace slid down the desk to lean against it with crossed arms; even from his place by the door Marco could see the defiant expression. He was starting to get pissed but something in his mind yanked at him, telling him to look closer and think again before he did something stupid.

Marco took a deep breath and looked at his kouhai again. The voice in his head was right – this didn't look like the Ace he had gotten to know this week.

"Why are you so defensive?" he asked, surprising both Ace and himself.

"I am not defensive!" his kouhai denied loudly, making Marco smirk.

"Oh, I beg to differ," Marco said, locking the door and taking step in Ace's direction. Ace automatically tried to take a step back but he put himself in the corner by standing by that desk. "Best defence is a good offence, isn't it?" Marco took another step forward.

"I guess so, what's it got to do with anything?" This time Marco clearly saw a flicker of panic.

"Oh, I'm just thinking. You've defensive the whole day. I want to know why," he said, taking another step.

"What did you want to talk about?" Ace suddenly pushed off the desk and took a step forward as well; Marco's smirk grew bigger – best defence indeed.

"Why are you so defensive?"

"What did you want to talk about?"

"Why are you so defensive?"

"I am not defensive, what did you want to talk about?"

"Yes, you are, and I want to know why."

"You didn't answer my question."

"You lied."

With each question they were taking a step forward until they stood in the middle of the room almost chest to chest, staring each other in the eyes.

"You didn't answer my question," Ace murmured, his eyes darted to Marco's lips for a split second.

"You lied," Marco answered in a low voice, mirroring Ace's movements.

"Yes," Ace breathed, barely audible. "Your turn."

"You are right, it's my turn," Marco purred, eliminating the distance between them and gently pressing his lips to Ace's.

* * *

**Can't promise anything about time of the next update, sorry.**

**Thanks for all reviews, favs and follows! **

**Hope to see you soon,**

**~Rhe.**


	15. Friday (Part 3)

**Ta-da!**

**Wow, it's been more than half a year... Damn... Way, way too long. I'll try not to take six months to update from now on but I make no promises XD This should have been posted yesterday but Internet decided to abandon me, so now I'm stealing my friend's internet to post this :D**

**Huge thanks to lunarshores for fixing this chapter :D **

**Disclaimer: I think I'll stop putting those in - it's obvious I don't own anything and that won't change anytime soon. This one is valid for the rest of the chapters of this fic.**

**Song of the chapter: Dangerous by Arctic Island (David Guetta cover, though the original would also do it)**

* * *

It was definitely Marco's fault, Ace finally decided. Not entirely, of course, to some extent it was Ace's own stupidity that got him where he was now, but everything else was definitely Marco's fault. He woke something inside Ace, and that something craved only one thing. So far he could control it, but he couldn't deny that he wanted to grab his sempai and continue what they started during lunch break. If Sabo was going to make them wait for another five minutes, Acemight actually go through with that.

"What are we waiting for again?" Marco asked, turning to look at Ace.

He honestly tried to remember what was it they were waiting for, but he couldn't think straight. His mind was back at the study room, reliving each and every moment. Ace didn't care that at the moment he was in a very crowded school yard. In order to gain some control over himself he bit his lower lip, eyes glued to Marco's frame.

"Fuck, don't look at me like that," the blond hissed, taking a step towards Ace.

"Like what?" he breathed, trying to remember where he was and what was he supposed to be doing.

"Ace!" Another voice joined in, snapping Ace out of his daze as he turned to look at his approaching brother.

"You're late," he said, taking a step back away from his sempai in order to avoid unnecessary complications.

"Oh wow, you have the most beautiful blue eyes I've ever seen!" Sabo completely ignored Ace, going directly for Marco and grabbing his arm to prevent escape. "Please tell me that he's for me?" His brother turned to him with pleading eyes, holding Marco's arm in a vice-like grip.

Unfortunately Ace knew that look very well – Sabo wasn't about to let sempai go anytime soon. Speaking of the blond sempai, he was trying to free his arm in order to get away from a very suspicious person. While Ace was trying to come up with something that could explain the eccentric behaviour of his brother to Sempai, said brother wasn't wasting any time feeling up the latter. Ace helplessly watched the struggle in front of him where Marco tried to free himself of the tick that was Sabo.

Done with his inspection but still holding the arm, Sabo turned to his brother:

"He is for me, right?"

"Um..." Ace met Marco's eyes that were demanding an answer to why he was assaulted by an unfamiliar person in their school yard. "Sempai, meet my brother Sabo. Sabo, this is Marco-sempai, he's the captain of our judo club. And yes, he is 'for you'."

"Awesome! Can we cut your hair?" Sabo turned to his prey.

"Do you mind explaining this?" Marco looked at Ace with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"You don't need to cut your hair if you don't want to," Ace said, looking between Sempai and his brother. "I am really sorry about him: he tends to get excited easily when he sees someone he would like to photograph."

"So, can we cut your hair?"

"Why would you want to cut my hair?"

"I know just the haircut for you. You'd look awesome." Sabo looked at Marco with conviction.

"Well, I don't really care about my hair..." Sempai said with a slight frown.

"Perfect, let's go!" Sabo bolted to his car, dragging his victim behind him, almost dislocating his arm and making him fall.

"Sorry," Ace mouthed to his sempai, following them.

Sabo opened the passenger door at the back of his car, almost shoved Marco inside and made Ace think that this looked pretty much like kidnapping. He joined Sempai in the back while his brother took the front seat next to the driver. There was another person in the back, namely Koala, who looked at Marco's dumbfound expression with compassion.

"Who did you abduct this time?" she asked with a sigh.

"Hi, Koala! This is Marco-sempai. He's the captain of out judo club," Ace explained.

Koala patted Marco on the back sympathetically. Being Sabo's girlfriend, classmate, and chief make-up artist for the Top Hat Studio, she knew what he was capable of very well.

"Koala, you see it, don't you?" Sabo turned in the front seat to look from his prey to his girlfriend; the driver waited for everyone to fasten their seatbelts and then started driving towards Sabo's place.

"Let me take a closer look," she turned to Marco and regarded him sceptically. After a moment she smiled widely. "Hell yes! Can we cut your hair?"

"What is it with you people and my hair?" Sempai raised his eyebrows.

"Come on, you'll be thanking me when I'm done with you," Koala said with great confidence; Ace nodded in agreement – when both Sabo and Koala agreed on a change of style it meant a major level up for their victim. In their defence, they'd never forced anyone. Yet.

"Whatever." Marco raised his hands in defeat.

"Yes!" Koala exclaimed happily.

For the rest of the road Koala kept poking Sempai's head, turning it this and that way and slightly pulling and shuffling his hair, making the victim of artistic abuse move farther and farther away from her. The only thing that prevented Marco from climbing onto Ace's lap in order to avoid all the poking and prodding was his seatbelt. As a result Ace had very ambivalent feelings about the safety contraption – both hating it and being very thankful for it. He had no idea what he would have done if he got a lap full of Sempai. Probably something very stupid and equally embarrassing. Lucky for him they pulled up in front of Sabo's house just in time before Ace did something as dumb as unbuckling Sempai's seatbelt and helping him avoid Koala.

To be completely honest, Ace didn't like Sabo's house. Of course there was nothing wrong with its architecture – it was built in a Victorian style and was well maintained. He just didn't like the overall feeling of it – the house didn't look like someone was supposed to live in it. The building was more suited to be a museum or a town hall and not a place actual people lived in. Ace said as much many times and each time Sabo completely agreed with it, but neither of them was dumb enough to state that in front of Sabo's parents. Said parents already hated Ace's guts, deeming him not good enough to spend time with their precious son, though lately their behaviour changed a lot for the better. Ace suspected that Sabo had had enough of them insulting his brother and spilled the beans about Ace's parents.

"You actually _live_ here?" The shocked question came from Sempai. "It looks like a museum!"

"If my parents are home, don't ever let them hear anything like that," Sabo warned with Ace and Koala nodding in agreement. "It's one of those things everyone knows but never talks about."

"Sorry, it kind of slipped out..."

"Don't apologise to me – as soon as I'm done with high school I'm out of here." Ace's brother looked at the building with disgust. "I'd much rather live with Dadan than here. Hell, I'd rather join the marines than live here!"

"Don't ever say it in front of the old man," Ace patted Sabo's back. "I do feel for you, but I'd rather live here than join the marines under his command."

"I meant generally. I'd stay as far away from him as possible."

"He'd get you transferred to him as soon as he sees your name amongst other recruits. Just don't."

Marco looked between them with a slightly confused expression on his face, and Ace realised that he wasn't really in on it. He probably heard something from Robin, but Ace wasn't sure if he was aware of how scary the old man could be. While Sabo and Ace were looking all thoughtful and regarded the possible new addition to the agency, Koala took the matter in her own hands:

"Have you met Garp?"

"Um, he almost ran me over this Monday. I think it's a family thing." The blond sempai looked at Ace with a slight smirk.

"Next time I run you over I'll make sure you have a cup of coffee in your hands," Ace grumbled, feeling his face grow warmer. He was dead sure that it didn't go unnoticed by his brother who, unlike his other brother, had the decency to wait with questions until they were alone later.

v(^-^)v

It has already been twenty minutes but Marco still couldn't get over that house. IT WAS ENORMOUS! He had to resist a strong urge to hold somebody's hand or clothes so that he wouldn't get lost because he was sure that he wouldn't be found until winter. Why would people live in something so huge? He would understand if this was a hotel or a royal residence, but come on! Normal people didn't live in houses that big! Especially not when the whole family was made of only three people – the father, the mother and the child, namely Sabo. Marco could have understood it if the family was the size of his family or if they had their extended family living with them, but there were only THREE PEOPLE!

Apparently, he was extremely obvious in his disapproval – Ace kept chuckling and saying that now Sabo couldn't say that it was only him, and the blond brother kept grumbling and saying that Stelly could shove this house where the sun doesn't shine once Sabo graduated and went to university. Since no one elaborated who Stelly was Marco assumed that these were not the people who would tell him that objectively.

"So, last piece of advice – don't go anywhere without your phone," Koala concluded their relatively short tour of the house that included important landmarks as to how to find an exit. As it turned out the house had four exits, big windows on the first floor not included. "Or just go through a window – it's a pretty easy way out and it's not that hard to climb down if you are on the second floor. And if you leave anything behind in the main building you can forget about it."

"The main building?" Marco raised his eyebrows.

"Anything above the ground level is the main building," Ace helpfully explained. "We won't be spending much time here, though."

"We are going to the basement. Anything below the ground territory is off limits for other annoying residents." Koala supplied that piece of information; Sabo looked like he wanted to blow this place up and wasn't saying anything unless forced to.

"What's in the basement?" Marco asked only to have all three look at him like he was an idiot.

"You do know why you're here, right?" Sabo asked with a slight frown.

"Because you want to cut my hair?" he answered, hastily remembering everything he knew about Ace and Sabo. "Pictures?"

At that both Koala and Sabo turned to look at Ace who looked extremely thoughtful.

"Didn't you explain anything to him?" Koala asked accusingly as she crossed her arms on her chest.

"You seriously don't know?" Ace looked him suspiciously, ignoring Koala.

"You just said something about hanging out with friends!" Marco said defensively.

"I should have known..." Sabo sighed. "At least you asked in advance."

Koala and Ace laughed loudly at that – clearly it was some kind of inside joke. After seeing Marco's slightly confused face Ace explained how Zoro became part of the Top Hat agency – simply by being abducted by Luffy. It didn't take a genius then to figure out that this was a trial run for Marco to see if he could be part of the agency. While being led to the basement and listening to Sabo's explanations about why he was here, the blond was trying to figure out how to say that he didn't like it when people took pictures of him. Marco didn't have many pictures of himself, and he liked to keep it that way. He tried not to dwell on the origins of his distaste for taking pictures since words 'evidence' and 'Impel Down' came to mind.

The basement didn't look like a basement at all. The lighting was fixed to match daylight and the walls were coloured in a manner that looked like someone just randomly spilled aquarelle on the wallpapers. Marco wasn't very knowledgeable in the arts, but Izo's love for art and painting with watercolours in particular rubbed off on him so much that he really enjoyed the overall design of the walls. There were also photos on the walls – most likely the ones Sabo was especially proud of. Marco could definitely see why – the models only took one third of the place at best, the rest were breathtaking landscapes, random city motifs that made him look at them a couple of times before he recognised places around the city, and several wild animals like a wolf and an owl.

Marco's companions didn't hurry him, allowing him the time to properly appreciate the skill of the photographer. Sabo indeed was extremely gifted – on several occasions he had turned a dull, everyday thing into something special. The photographer just took in his reaction to the pictures and gave a concise story of how he came to take the pictures. Marco particularly liked the photo of the owl that was taken the moment it pushed off from a branch. What drew him in even more was that the picture was printed in black and white, sharp lines and shadows coming out and making the picture truly amazing. Marco knew that photographers sometimes did their pictures in black and white to improve the picture, but this was the technique at its finest.

"While it is a good shot, I have to admit that I almost lost it," Sabo commented with a smile. "The stupid bird attacked me causing me to fall from the tree and break my arm. Then it almost took off with the camera; it's pure luck the camera got caught in the branches long enough for me to grab it."

"You make it sound like it's dangerous to be a photographer," Marco said, barely holding back his smile.

"You can't possibly think that that one was taken in a petting zoo," Sabo snorted as he pointed towards the photo of the wolf.

"No, that looks more like Mount Corvo," he answered thoughtfully, taking in the picture.

"What makes you say that?" Ace's brother asked curiously.

"That," Marco pointed to the right lower corner of the picture to what looked suspiciously like a part of a metal staff, maybe even the same one Ace had with him on Wednesday.

"Really?" Sabo's eyebrows rose. "You're in on it?"

"On what exactly?" Marco turned away from the picture to look at the blond.

"Our... ahem... extended family..."

"Nice people, very welcoming," he said sarcastically, making Ace snort at the memories.

"Is that so?" Koala asked with a smile; somehow Marco felt like he made a step in a right direction. It was hard to pinpoint what exactly made him feel like he was out of the neutral zone and into the friendly zone, but he was definitely safe for now. As to why he would want Sabo to like him, Marco decided to ponder it later.

v(^-^)v

Ace followed Koala and Sempai to the changing room with a slight smile on his lips. Sabo seemed to like Marco, and Koala was sold the moment Sempai agreed to give up his hair. While the blond was rushed to a chair in front of a mirror by Koala, Ace went to the walk in closet to change into something that wasn't his uniform. In five minutes he walked out in jeans and t-shirt, one step away from kicking his brother's ass. Said brother was standing by Koala in front of the mirror, arguing with Koala about the haircut Sempai should get. Marco was sitting there like a sapling in a storm, pulled in different directions by arguing parties.

"Sabo, where's the belt?" Ace asked, tapping his foot.

"The orange monstrosity?" Sabo specified, not bothering to look at his brother as he pulled sempai towards him. "I threw it away. Now, like I said, cut two centimetres here and here."

"You what?" Ace growled.

"Stop that, we got you a new one; it's with other belts," Koala pulled Marco to her, glaring at her boyfriend. "Which one of us is the stylist? I don't boss you around when you're behind the camera! I know what I'm doing so get out, or tomorrow you'll wake up a dalmatian."

"What, as adorable as one?" Sabo smirked.

"No, as short-haired and as black and white as one. Now get out." She pushed the photographer away, taking her place behind sempai. "What are you still doing here?"

Sabo backed away, his hands raised in defeat.

"Ace, help me set up the camera. Oh, and leave the new monstrosity alone," he said on his way out.

"If you think it's a monstrosity then why did you buy a new one?" Ace retorted, going back to the closet.

"He didn't. I did." Koala answered, moving to get things needed for a haircut.

"You're the best," Ace chuckled, rummaging through belts until he saw it – a neon orange leather belt with his trademark buckle. "How'd you get the buckle on it?"

"Five minutes in the right store could do a lot," Koala smirked. "You can just go out to him. I thought I'd fix you up a bit, but now he'll just have to work extra hard with photoshop."

"Fix me up?" He asked, confused.

Instead of answering, she just tapped her neck with a smile and put on her own belt with her tools. Ace chuckled nervously and escaped to his brother – she probably wouldn't ask Sempai, but Ace himself was a fair game.

"If you make him look bad – the whole school will be after you," Ace warned Koala just in case.

"When did I ever do that?" She snorted. "What, is he on your 'Most Wanted' list?"

"Yeah..." he slowly admitted – the reason for that was a warning glare from Sempai through the mirror.

"Like top twenty?" Koala asked curiously; she'd always had an interest in the list and kind of wished to start a similar one in Mariejois, but the winner was pretty obvious so it was pointless.

"You could say so," Ace said, looking anywhere but at the mirror – the glare from Sempai was getting more intense by the second.

"What, don't tell me he's in top ten? What were you, number six? Is he better or worse?" She looked all excited, and Ace wanted to disappear – the glare was getting stronger by the second.

"Um... I'll go help Sabo," he said hastily and all but ran out of the room.

Sabo was found under the table in front of the white screen, trying to make sense of all the cables. With a sigh Ace got down to all fours to see if he could help.

"If this is the internet and this is the lights then what the hell is this?" Sabo muttered, poking the cables.

"The speakers?" Ace asked with a shrug.

"Speaking of speakers, who's the girlfriend and why don't I know anything?" the blond gave his brother an evil smirk, pulling out the 'speakers' cable and replacing it with the cable he was holding.

"What do speakers have to do with anything?" Ace grumbled, not even trying to fight the embarrassed blush.

"Nothing. So, spill."

"There's nothing to spill!"

"Oh, so you're saying it's a mysterious rash that just appeared one day? Since when you are keeping things from me?"

'Since I kinda asked my male sempai out during a temporary bout of insanity,' Ace thought but said nothing.

"Do I know her?" Sabo continued the interrogation as he got up to check if the camera was now connected to the computer.

'Yeah, now you do. I just introduced him to you,' Ace remained sitting under the table, refusing to answer any questions.

"Come on, give me something! Is she hot? Or smart? Or both?" The blond looked under the table to stare at his brother.

'Both and you don't even know the half of it...' Ace crossed his arms defensively and fixed his gaze on the cables.

"Or was it just a fling?"

'Very good question. I'd like an answer to that myself,' he sighed.

"What's with this silent treatment? You think I'm gonna judge you?" Sabo got under the table and sat in front of Ace. "You know I'd never do that."

Ace sighed again – with all that's been going on he didn't even think about what Sabo would think about him if he knew the truth. He was sure that Sabo wasn't going to judge him like that, more like doubt Ace's sanity if he got to know the whole story, but never judge. They may not have been related by blood, but Sabo was _family_. He would accept Ace regardless of who he was or what he did.

"I know that. It's just..." He started but couldn't find the words. "It's just... I don't know! I just don't know! I'm confused, and I'm freaked out, and I just don't know!"

"Wow... Now I'm even more curious. Who the hell could get under your skin like this?"

Ace was just about to come clean and answer but the door to the changing room opened, and his jaw promptly dropped. There was a reason why Koala was in charge of makeovers and anything to do with style. Who knew a haircut would make a world of a difference! More importantly, how could she see that before it was even made?

"What?" Sabo turned to look what got his brother's attention. "Holy cow..."

"Now you'll know better than to ever talk back at me about this. I told you I knew what I was doing." Koala said smugly.

Ace finally gathered enough brain cells to close his mouth, feeling absolutely and utterly screwed. If he ever had any kind of chance of getting out of this week somewhat unaffected it was gone now. Major level up, his ass! The whole frigging school would go nuts the second they saw Marco-sempai sporting a wide mohawk.

* * *

**I love sitting under the table - I did it a lot when I was a child - just put a blanket over the table and a nearby chair and you have your own castle XD Maybe that's why I keep putting Ace under a table XD**

**It was meant to leave the chapter here, in case you are wondering XD**

**Thanks for the patience, reviews, favs and follows (btw, more than 150 favs and 200 follows? When did that happen? O-o). Also, I'd like to apologise to the people that reviewed and didn't get an answer - I usually answer to every review unless it's from a guest, but I lost track of who I replied to and who didn't and I'm sorry about that. I'll try to answer everyone from now on.**

**Hope to see you sooner rather than later,**

**~Rhe.**


	16. Friday (Part 4)

**I feel like a lot of you will be going 'IT'S ALIVE!' right about now :D **

**This fic has been around for two years now and I'm incredibly grateful for the amazing time we've had together. When I published the first chapter I never thought this fic would get anything more than a 100 favs and that was with the very best case scenario. Now it's more than 200 favs and over 260 follows and it's really all thanks to you guys. I would not be here now (and neither would this fic) if it wasn't for the awesome support I got when I first published it. Thank you so much for that. **

**A special thank you goes to lunarshores and her wonderful beta-ing skills.**

**Song of the chapter: _Fan Va Bra_ by _Jakob Karlberg_.**

* * *

Marco was slowly starting to panic. Even if he had never been vain, he had to admit that after Koala was done with him he started to look _good_. In fact, he would even go as far as to state that he started to look hot. The mohawk gave him an edge that wasn't there before, making his appearance more striking. Now, however, he was starting to doubt that upgrade. He didn't notice anything at first because he was too busy keeping Ace's hyper brother at an arm's length. When that brother left him to continue setting up the camera on the computer – then he noticed it. It was back. Full force. The thrice damned x-ray vision.

The situation couldn't have been worse. From what he'd heard from Robin, Ace had never been together with a guy before and while Sabo did seem nice enough, there could be all sorts of reactions from a pat on the back to a full-blown rage. Even if Ace did like him, Marco just knew that he had no chance of winning that one. What made the situation even worse was that he wanted nothing more than to touch Ace at the moment and he was very well aware that he couldn't do it right now, which made him want to touch Ace even more. Whoever said that what you can't have you want even more must have been in a similar situation.

He tried looking anywhere but at his kouhai, keeping his itching hands in the pockets of blue-green jeans Koala forced him into. It wasn't helping much, to be completely honest. He could pull off a semblance of his normal, slightly bored, look but behind that mask his emotions were running wild. Marco was seriously afraid he would do something stupid if he got anywhere near Ace and it didn't look like he could stay away since Koala literally pushed him in Ace's direction.

"Ace, give him Modelling 101 before we put him in front of the camera," Sabo said as he took up the camera.

"Isn't that your old one?" Ace finally looked away from Marco, taking a few steps back.

"The new one is being stupid. I'm going to properly fix it tomorrow since I doubt Marco can sit here for hours, waiting for me to be done."

"If you say so." His kouhai shrugged and went to stand in front of the white screen. "Did you put the speakers back in?"

"Yeah, DJ, whenever you are ready," Sabo said mockingly to Koala.

The blonde stuck out her tongue at the photographer and went to sit behind the monitor, dragging Marco with her. She pushed him into the chair and pulled the keyboard towards her. By tapping a few keys and making a couple of clicks with the mouse Koala launched a sound assault on them – apparently the player, the computer and the speakers were all on maximum volume. It seemed like the whole building shook as they scrambled to protect their ears from the loud sound. Marco almost expected for the ceiling to fall on top of them before Koala realised what was happening and muted the computer.

"Are you trying to kill us?" Sabo grumbled from where he was crouching and covering his ears.

"You were the last one to touch the computer!" Koala argued as she checked everything before playing the music again, this time on a manageable volume.

Still somewhat dazed, Marco absently watched as Ace rose and did a quick stretching to warm up. He saw Sabo pick up the camera, still blissfully unaware – the music was kind of in background, not bothering him at all. Only when Ace moved slowly did Marco realised that he wanted to go Antarctica. Or anywhere, really. Just as far away from this forsaken place as possible. Hell, he'll take the x-ray vision over this torture any time! They couldn't seriously expect him to sit still while Ace was doing what could only be descried as dancing right in front of him! Marco had to get out of here. The only problem was that his body refused to move from the stupid chair.

"This is not bad," Marco heard Koala say next to him. "It normally takes him a couple of shots to get going, but this is really good."

Marco snapped out of it as he quickly turned to look at monitor... and when will he learn from his mistakes?! The pictures were still being taken, taking the half the screen for a second and then fading back to other pictures but that wasn't the point. The point was that on every single one of those pictures Ace was looking somewhere above the camera with that damned x-ray vision. His head snapped up from the screen to see if he was right only to be hit by the x-ray vision head on. The things he's like to do to Ace right now... 'No, bad Marco! Think... think... think about... about Dadan in a bikini doing Arabic belly dancing...' The blond shuddered at the mental image, his upcoming boner effectively disposed of. At least he found a way to keep himself in line, despite the mental scarring.

"What's with that face? You think you could do better?" Koala asked with a taunt.

"What? Ah, no, I just... remembered something..." Marco lied quickly.

"Why don't you join Ace and we'll see how good you are?" The blonde clearly didn't believe him.

"What? No, there's no need for that..."

"Why do you think you're here? Ace, Marco thinks he's better than you! Drag him out – let's see how he'll do!" Koala said loudly over music.

"I really don't think that!" Marco panicked. Being that close to Ace would result in a lot of sexual frustration and mental scarring and he really didn't want to have either. To hell with pictures - he could just quickly fail at that solo... as long as he could stay away from his kouhai.

"Yeah, bro, get him over here. I think you two would look good together," Sabo pitched in.

"Maybe I should try alone first?" Marco said desperately.

"We can do that later," the photographer answered, checking something on the camera quickly. "Ace, go get him."

"Yes sir," the kouhai saluted his brother mockingly, walking in Marco's direction. "Come. The sooner you do this, the sooner you can get out of here."

Ace grabbed Marcos wrist and pulled lightly. The blond had all the intentions to pull his hand away, grab his chair and dig his feet in – anything to get out of being that close to Ace. Unfortunately those intentions didn't help him one bit because his body seemed content with following Ace wherever that is he dragged Marco to. As a result he barely remembered the photo shoot itself – his memory consisted of 'I want to fuck him' and 'Dadan in a bikini, damn it!'. Marco had no idea how he did but Sabo looked pleased when he finally announced that they could stop there.

"I need to look though them first but I think overall you did pretty good," the photographer told Marco as he saved the pictures on the computer. "I have a question, though – you kept getting this weird face from time to time... I don't even know how to describe it."

"Yeah, like there was a bad smell or something," Koala agreed.

"I just really don't like being photographed," Marco lied quickly, hoping they'd leave it at that.

"Well, you did a pretty decent job for someone who hates being in pictures," Sabo noted, his eyes glued to the monitor. "You guys go get changed while I finish up here and then we'll go grab a bite."

"I'll go check the fridge to see our options," Koala volunteered.

"Alrighty, we'll be right back," Ace said, pushing Marco towards the changing room.

In retrospect, Marco knew he should have known that nothing good would come out of having him and Ace in a small, confined space. At the very least he should have let Ace go in before him so that he would have had a clear escape path. Unfortunately for him he walked in first, allowing his kouhai to close the door behind them and stand in front of the doorway, effectively blocking the path. For a moment they stared at each other before Ace took a slow step forward. Marco watched him carefully, trying to figure out if this was a fight or flight situation. His kouhai took another step and the blond suddenly realised that it was neither. He should have fought or ran on Monday or, at the very least, Tuesday, because now it was way too late for either. What he could do now was just raise a white flag.

v(^-^)v

This week was getting just better and better for Ace. Whatever humiliation he suffered before was nothing compared to the awkwardness he felt at the moment. And the thing was that he only noticed something was off when Marco turned to stone in the middle of their make-out session that Ace completely blamed on Koala and her mad artistic skills. He didn't know if the fact that they were inside the closet made it better or worse. It definitely made a strong point, for sure. For a moment there Ace thought he should just knock Sabo out and then tell him he imagined everything but then how would he explain his actions to sempai? The only good-ish thing was that Sabo would not be able to say that sempai forced him into it if the way they were caught said anything.

"I think you should go outside before he shakes it off – I'll talk to him," Ace said to Marco, eyeing his frozen brother.

Sempai only gave a quick nod before leaving the closet and the changing room as quickly as possible without running. Ace sighed and scratched the back of his neck – just what the hell was he supposed to say in this situation? He didn't even start thinking about how to tell his family and friends that he was probably bisexual now. He was too occupied by his own internal crisis and the creation of his master plan (there wasn't much of a plan, to be completely honest with himself) to think about how other people might react to that.

Ace was brought back to earth when his brother jerked, looked down at his, now empty, hands and camera on the floor, then back at Ace, back at the camera and back at his brother and several more times back and forth between the two.

"SHIT! That's my new camera!" Sabo finally figured out his priorities. He quickly bent down to pick it up and groaned. "Damn it! Now I need a new lens!"

"Sorry?" Ace offered sheepishly.

"You!" The blond seemed to have connected the accident to the cause of it.

"Me?"

"You!"

"What about me?" Ace wanted to face-palm – this whole situation was about him now.

"How long have the two of you been together? Why the hell don't I know anything about it? I thought we were brothers! Why the hell didn't you tell me anything? How long have you been into guys? Why didn't you tell me about that? Do you think I'm gonna judge you, is that it? Were you even planning on telling me anything? Well, that's nice to know your opinion of me! You think I'm some kind of judgemental homophobic prick, is that it?" Sabo's rant was like a dam breaking – Ace couldn't say anything even if he tried. "How could you even think something like that about me? Some brother you are! Well, are you going to say anything?"

"Um..." Ace completely forgot what he was about to say thanks to Sabo's furious glare. "One question at a time, please?" He said, unsure if he'd get his head bitten off anytime soon.

"How long have the two of you been a couple?" Sabo asked sternly, tapping his foot impatiently and crossing his arms on his chest.

The obvious answer would have been Monday but Ace still had no idea what the hell possessed him into asking sempai out. Plus, they didn't do anything until Wednesday and even that had a debatable reason. Ideally Ace would have said that they started to actually date today but if Sabo decided to ask Marco about it the answer most likely would be Monday.

"Well?" His brother snapped at him.

"Monday?" Ace decided to go with the obvious answer.

"Monday? Didn't look like Monday to me, at least not this Monday," Sabo said sceptically. Ace just shrugged at that – there wasn't anything he could say there. "Fine, suppose I believe you. Whatever. More importantly, since when are you into guys?"

In a perfect world Ace would have been able to answer something along the lines of 'since a month ago' or at least 'since last week' BUT. This was not a perfect world and Ace himself had no idea when it started. The catalyst was definitely that fight on Wednesday but before that very fight (or the aftermath of it) he had no interest in guys whatsoever. None. Nada. So, what could he tell Sabo without a risk of being forced to go to a psychiatrist?

"Ahem," the blond cleared his throat loudly.

"Wednesday?"

The reaction to that was an extremely thoughtful face. Sabo hummed absent-mindedly with a frown on his face, making Ace quite nervous.

"What are you thinking?" He finally dared to ask after a minute.

"I'm just... I mean... You were with me the whole Wednesday after school. The hell happened during school time?"

For a moment Ace was extremely confused about what Sabo was talking about - he didn't see him this Wednesday. Then it hit him and he just couldn't stop the face-palm.

"This Wednesday, Sabo."

"Excuse me, what? I think I misheard that. Did you just say 'this Wednesday'?"

"Y-yeah..."

"Hold on. Back the hell up. Didn't you just say you two started dating this Monday?"

"Y-yeah..."

"Okay... So, what, like he asked you out and you didn't want to turn him down?"

"Y-yeah, about that..."

The expression on Ace's face told Sabo everything he needed to know.

"Oh no you don't! Hell no. Don't even try to tell me what I think you are trying to tell me cause if you are..." Sabo's right hand flew up to tangle in his hair. "You did not... Why would you... No way... Tell me you did not ask him out."

Ace just shrugged, completely at a loss as to what to say.

"Why?" Sabo whined.

"I'll tell you when I know the answer to that myself," Ace said sincerely.

Sabo made a deep sigh, clearly not angry with Ace anymore. He made another exasperated sigh, rolling his eyes at the same time, and said:

"You do know that this is screwed up on so many levels?"

"Oh, you don't even know the half of it. That's just the tip of the iceberg," Ace snorted.

"Do tell," Sabo raised his eyebrows.

"So, to begin with, I ran him over. Literally," Ace said, happy that he could finally complain to someone. "Then I asked him out. And he's in my club, actually he's the captain, and I sort of lost control during sparring with him..."

"So he's a masochist."

"Wait up, he beat me," Ace raised his index finger to emphasise the point.

"Okay, so you're a masochist."

"With the way this week went – I probably am now. So, that was Monday. Then came Tuesday. I ran him over. Again."

"You're both masochists." Sabo nodded solemnly.

"I'm not done. Then I made him buy me food and basically behaved like Luffy. Later I cursed him out."

"I'm not sure I follow this development..." The blond shook his head.

"Now, Wednesday. I made him wake up at like four in the morning and go all the way to my house to pick me up for morning practice. Then I fell asleep on the bus and he had to get me and my bags off of it somehow. Then I almost ran him over again."

"You know what? You're a sadist, not a masochist. I seriously feel sorry for the poor guy."

"Hold your judgement," Ace raised his hands.

"What, there's more?"

"You have no idea. So, then I dragged him over to Dadan's. Of course the guys tried to shoot him, and so he took Happa hostage. Then I dragged him with me for the hunt."

"Don't tell me he was there during meal time..." Sabo shook his head in disbelief.

"What more – he kicked their asses," Ace said proudly. "Then, on our way home there was... hm... an accident? I mean, it started as a fight but then it turned into what you happened to witness..."

"You know what," Sabo interrupted. "I don't want to know. You're both equally screwed up."

Ace chuckled, nodding in agreement. His brother laughed a bit too before his face became a frown again.

"Wait. Marco the judo captain – he's Robins best friend, right?"

"Yeah, why?" Ace asked, confused.

"Find another boyfriend. I don't care who you date as long as it's not him." Sabo said sternly.

"Why?!"

"Because I want you to be together with someone who won't dump you by the end of the week," the blond crossed his arms again.

Ace wasn't expecting that. He didn't think that Sabo would know about sempai's... schedule. Though it made a lot of sense that he'd be against it – if Sabo dated someone like that Ace would also be against it. Still, he was working on a plan, damn it! Plus he still had his two days and he wasn't about to let them go to waste.

"Damn it, Ace!" Sabo pulled his hair again. "You're going to be stubborn about this, aren't you?"

He just sighed, looking away from his brother. What could he say? Sabo already figured that he wasn't going to give up now.

"Why? Just why would you do that? Unless... no. I refuse to believe that you are THAT stupid," the blond studied his brother for a moment. "Damn it, Ace!"

"What?" Ace stared at Sabo anxiously – his brother looked like he just had an epiphany.

"You're in love with him, aren't you?"

"I'M WHAT?" Ace gaped.

The only response he got was an extremely sceptical eyebrow from the blond. That didn't happen unless Sabo was one thousand percent sure about something or wanted Ace to think about something stupid he did. Therefore Ace started thinking. Was he really in love with sempai? He's been in love before, though none of those times were anywhere near as confusing as this.

There was his first crush on Makino which, given that at that time he thought all women looked like Dadan, wasn't too surprising. Then came Conis – his first girlfriend, she was similar to Makino in many ways. Those were the only times he went way out of his way to make them like him, much like he acted now. Then there were a couple more fairly unremarkable and slightly awkward girlfriends during junior high and then came high school. In the beginning he had a huge crush on Nami (but really, who hadn't?) though she quickly cured him of it. After Nami came Vivi, though by the time Nami tried to set them up he was over her.

Later he and Bonney had a lot in common (mainly all the food they both loved) but it didn't last (because neither of them could afford to have a significant other with equally healthy appetite). Then there always was that pedestal that was occupied by Boa Hancock (every guy that ever met her definitely had one (except for Luffy, that is)).

After combining his experiences, analysing them and comparing them to the situation at hand Ace had to admit – yeah, all the signs were there. He was just too busy being confused to notice them. With a sigh Ace slowly looked at his brother, who patiently waited for him to come to a conclusion.

"I... I guess I am," he said slowly.

Sabo shook his head with a sigh.

"We've known each other for a long time, and I've seen you do a lot of stupid and crazy things but this, this is the first time I'm wondering what it's like being you." He finally said. "I mean, what went on inside your head for you to end up in this situation?"

"Hey, I am what I am. Though I dare say I'm still better than Luffy," Ace answered with a smile.

"That's a close call," the blond smiled as well but became serious once again. "You know he's going to dump you on Sunday?"

"Thanks for reminding me. Like I didn't know that already."

"In that case it's time for me to give him a stern talking to of an older brother."

"Who the hell made you older? I'm older than you by almost three months!" Ace objected.

"Come on, we both know that me being born after you was a mistake of nature. If anything, you just proved that I'm the only mature one out of the three of us," Sabo smirked.

v(^-^)v

Marco was resisting a strong urge to pace frantically, waiting in the studio. To be absolutely honest, his first thought after noticing Sabo was to knock him out and later tell him he imagined everything but he seriously doubted Ace would have been fine with that. Thus he waited. Ace and Sabo has been in the changing room for ten minutes already. He knew that because he probably checked his phone more than hundred times. This was exactly what he absolutely did not want to happen! Well, with the way this week was going he shouldn't be surprised anymore – if Ace was involved Marco was sure to do the opposite of what he was supposed to do. He didn't have a slightest idea why he'd act like that – it just was the way he functioned since Monday. And what the hell was taking so long? Were they trying to figure out the cold fusion in there?

He shook his head at himself, annoyed by his own impatience. If this was how long it took for them to talk about it then he should just wait. Still, how long do such talks normally last? Marco checked his phone again only to see that a mere minute has passed. The blond refused to believe it – it felt at least five times longer than that. He was about to give up and start pacing to get some of the nerves out when he saw the doorknob move. Marco immediately changed his mind – he'd love for them to take ten more minutes or half an hour.

The doorknob may have been turned but the door stayed closed. The blond felt his eyebrow twitch – why turn the thing and almost give him a heart attack if no one was coming out? Were they doing this on purpose? Before he could get more frustrated the door opened, revealing the brothers. Well, that partially answered what they were doing – Ace was back in his uniform sans the tie.

Marco quickly looked at Ace's face to see if there were any clues as to how the conversation went. His kouhai met his gaze and mouthed an unmistakeable 'sorry'. The blond frowned a little with confusion – what could Ace be sorry for? Did he panic and blamed everything on Marco? Ace made a scared face and quickly pointed at his brother. Marco looked at Sabo but he was turned to look at his brother who quickly made an innocent face and hid his hands behind his back. The blond looked back at his kouhai, more confused this time, - in response Ace made scary eyes that clearly stated 'don't look here, look at Sabo', so Marco turned to the other blond in the room.

One look at Sabo made it clear that Marco was about to be eviscerated.

"Listen carefully because I am not going to repeat myself," Sabo started, his voice low and even though no less threatening. "I don't like you, I don't approve of you, and I think Ace deserves better than you. However, since you won't be staying for long I will look the other way. Make no mistake though – you hurt him in any way, and you will regret the day you met him. Am I being clear?"

"Yes," Marco nodded, fully aware that a different answer would have severe consequences. In reality Marco had no idea what Sabo meant by 'won't be staying for long'.

"Good. Now, change and go to the kitchen," Sabo turned away from him to face his brother. "And Ace, please don't violate my working space – I don't want to go through the cleaning process again. Once a month is enough."

"It's not my fault you left Zoro and Sanji in there for half an hour," Ace argued.

"I'm beginning to doubt if I should leave the two of you alone here."

"We'll behave, we promise."

Sabo snorted, clearly stating that he didn't believe him, and left the studio. Ace sighed loudly and looked at Marco.

"I'm really sorry about him – he gets a bit over dramatic when he pretends he's the eldest," Ace said.

"Pretends?" The blond grabbed the first word that caught his attention because he was still trying to figure out what Sabo meant.

"Yeah, technically I'm older than him, but I think I lost that privilege today,." The kouhai laughed. "Go get changed, and I'll wait here and make sure Sabo doesn't have to spend more money on the cleaning crew."

"Alright," Marco nodded – he already somehow got on the blond's bad side, he didn't need to make it worse.

He quickly went to change, leaving his kouhai behind. When he returned, back in his uniform and his bag on his shoulder, Ace made a face like he just bit a lemon.

"What?" The blond asked, feeling unusually self-conscious.

Ace studied him with that same expression until he finally spoke:

"Nope, this just won't do."

"What won't do?"

"You won't do. It was fine and everything before but now your prim and proper uniform clashes with your hair in the worst way possible. If I don't do something, Koala will." With that said Ace determinedly made his way to Marco. He confiscated the bag and put it on the floor for easier access to the blond.

First thing to go was the tie – Ace loosened it, took it off and put it on himself.

"I'm taking the tie hostage. From now on the ties are strictly prohibited," he said.

"Why?" Marco raised an eyebrow with amusement.

"Because I said so. Now, go back in there and put the t-shirt back on and don't bother buttoning the shirt," Ace ordered. Marco's eyebrow climbed a little higher at that – he had no idea what his kouhai was aiming at. "Go!" Ace pushed him towards the changing room.

The blond raised his arms in defeat and went to do as he was told. Since he didn't know what to do with the clothes he used for the shoot (he couldn't possibly put them back in the wardrobe), the blond just left them folded on a chair. Putting the t-shirt back on didn't take much time – it was was the uniform shirt that he was hesitant about. Marco eyed the change in the mirror sceptically for a minute before going back out.

"Well?" He asked after coming out.

"Better but I'm not done yet. Come here," Ace made an inviting gesture.

Marco obeyed with a loud sigh, letting his kouhai know that he wasn't thrilled about this. Ace just rolled his eyes with a confident smirk and grabbed blond's right hand to start rolling up the sleeve. Marco looked at him thoughtfully, thinking if he should ask him or not. Maybe Ace knew what his brother meant because otherwise he was going to break his head trying to understand it. He finally decided when Ace was rolling up his left sleeve.

"Hey, what did your brother mean when he said I won't be staying long?"

Ace's head snapped up from looking at the sleeve to stare at Marco with surprised expression. He gazed at the blond for a minute until he was sure that Marco indeed had no clue about the meaning.

"Don't worry about it," he finally said with a small smile, looking back down at the sleeve.

"But..." Marco started but he was quickly silenced by a soft kiss on the lips that left him absolutely light-headed.

"Don't worry about it," Ace repeated with a smile, taking Marco's hand. "Now let's go before Sabo decides to check on us."

* * *

**I have a couple more things to say now that you've read the chappie :D Originally the photoshoot was supposed to be more detailed than this but with time various ideas sprouted and this was the one I picked. Sorry if you expected this to be more about photos and less about closets ;D**

**To _GreenDrkness_ \- now that I think about it maybe this wasn't exactly what you had in mind. I hope you like it anyway :P**

**To _Alexzandria747_ \- please don't be lazy this time and log in - I like to be able to answer the reviews ;D**

**And to everyone who thinks that no one would read their fic because they are a shitty writer and they are bad at English and the idea is not good enough - that was what I was thinking when I published the first chapter of this fic. To add to that I already had 2 sorta shitty ZoSan stories that showed me that not many people here liked my writing. Just find something that works for you and for me it was Seven Days. Same fandom, new pairing. Try changing something and see how it goes ^-^**

**Thank you for all the reviews, favs and follows,**  
**~Rhe.**


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